0. Ah, and
that is 'Genoa'! Now to whom is it payable, I wonder!"

"What the devil are you doing?" growled Paul, sitting up with a shiver.

"My friend, I have saved your life," observed the Captain, impressively.

"That's no reason for robbing me," was Paul's ungrateful but logically
sound reply.

The Captain stooped and picked up the bundle of letters. Separating
them one from another, he tore them into small fragments and scattered
them over the stream. Paul watched him, sullen but without resistance.
Dieppe turned to him.

"You have no possible claim against the Countess," he remarked; "no
possible hold on her, Monsieur de Roustache."

Paul finished the flask for himself this time, shivered again, and
swore pitifully. He was half-crying and cowed. "Curse the whole
business!" he said. "But she had twenty thousand francs of my money."

The Captain addressed to him a question somewhat odd under the
circumstances.

"On your honour as a gentleman, is that true?" he asked.

"Yes, it's true," said Paul, with a glare of suspicion. He was not in
the mood to appreciate satire or banter; but the Captain appeared quite
grave and his manner was courteous.

"It's beastly cold," Paul continued with a groan.

"In a moment you shall take a run," the Captain promised. And he
pursued, "The Countess must not be in your debt. Permit me to
discharge the obligation." He counted twenty of the thirty notes and
held them out to Paul. After another stare Paul laughed feebly.

"I am doing our friend M. Guillaume no wrong," the Captain explained.
"His employers have in their possession fifty thousand francs of mine.
I avail myself of this opportunity to reduce the balance to their
debit. As between M. Guillaume and me, that is all. As between you
and me, sir, I act for the Countess. I pay your claim at your own
figures, and since I discharge the claim I have made free to destroy
the evidence. I have thrown the letters into the river. I do not wish
to threaten, but if you 're not out of sight in ten minutes, I 'll
throw you after them."

"If I told you all the story--" began Paul with a sneer.

"I 'm not accustomed to listen to stories against ladies, sir,"
thundered the Captain.

"She 's had my money for a year--"

"The Countess would wish to be most liberal, but she did not understand
that you regarded the transaction as a commercial one." He counted
five more notes and handed them to Paul with an air of ca