'I did that because I wished to be the one to throw light upon it all--and
at the proper moment.'

'That is very fine, Charles, but what will be thought about that when I
make it all public in my own defence? How can you explain all that to
your Emperor? There is still time to prevent my telling all that I know
about you.'

'Well, really, I think that you are right, my friend,' said the other,
drawing out his pistol and cocking it. 'Perhaps I _did_ go a little
beyond my instructions in one or two points, and, as you very properly
remark, there is still time to set it right. It is a matter of detail
whether I give you up living or give you up dead, and I think that, on
the whole, it had better be dead.'

It had been horrible to see Toussac tear the throat out of the hound,
but it had not made my flesh creep as it crept now. Pity was mingled
with my disgust for this unfortunate young man, who had been fitted by
Nature for the life of a retired student or of a dreaming poet, but who
had been dragged by stronger wills than his own into a part which no
child could be more incapable of playing. I forgave him the trick by
which he had caught me and the selfish fears to which he had been
willing to sacrifice me. He had flung himself down upon the ground, and
floundered about in a convulsion of terror, whilst his terrible little
companion, with his cynical smile, stood over him with his pistol in his
hand. He played with the helpless panting coward as a cat might with a
mouse; but I read in his inexorable eyes that it was no jest, and his
finger seemed to be already tightening upon his trigger. Full of horror
at so cold-blooded a murder, I pushed open my crazy cupboard, and had
rushed out to plead for the victim, when there came a buzz of voices and