"And you are pledged to kill him?"

"I am pledged to see you safely without these walls by this day
fortnight."

"And you?"

"I remain."

"Marcel, you are crazy."

"M. Granger, you are polite."

That night fortnight I was away; and this was the message that sent me:

"TO M. ARTHUR GRANGER:

"Your fatal discovery on the morning of my departure makes you
the only man to whom I can appeal. Let me pray the appeal be
not in vain. In the folly of my youth, while sojourning in
Italy, I joined a powerful secret order, whose demands cease
only with death, and whose penalty for denial is a sudden and
bloody end. You can judge, then, my anxiety on being compelled
to admit to my establishment, disguised as a servant, one of
its highest officers, and my horror at hearing of his abrupt
departure. Since then I have learned the unhappy cause. My life
is in another's hands. It is for him to command, and for me
blindly to obey. There are two beings in this world dearer to
me than my soul's salvation. To you, M. Granger, as a Christian
gentleman, I commend them. The sealed note inclosed (the