“You may be telling the truth about that incident or you may not,” said De Chauxville.  “But my knowledge of the betrayal of the Charity League is sufficient for my purpose.”

“Yes,” admitted Steinmetz grimly, “you have information there with possibilities of mischief in it.  But I shall discount most of it by telling Prince Pavlo to-night all that I know, and I know more than you do.  Also, I intend to seal your lips before you leave this room.”

De Chauxville stared at him with a dropping lip.  He gulped down something in his throat.  His hand was stealing round under the fur jacket to a pocket at the back of his trousers.

“Let me out!” he hissed.

There was a gleam of bright metal in the sunlight that poured in through the window.  De Chauxville raised his arm sharply, and at the same instant Steinmetz threw a book in his face.  A loud report, and the room was full of smoke.

Steinmetz placed one hand on the table and, despite his weight, vaulted it cleanly.  This man had taken his degree at Heidelberg, and the Germans are the finest gymnasts in the world.  Moreover, muscle, once made, remains till death.  It was his only chance, for the Frenchman had dodged the novel, but it spoiled his aim.  Steinmetz vaulted right on to him, and De Chauxville staggered back.

In a moment Steinmetz had him by the collar; his face was gray, his heavy eyes ablaze.  If any thing will rouse a man, it is being fired at point-blank at a range of four yards with a .280 revolver.

“Ach!” gasped the German; “you would shoot me, would you?”

He wrenched the pistol from De Chauxville’s fingers and threw it into the corner of the room.  Then he shook the man like a garment.

“First,” he cried, “you would kill Paul, and now you try to shoot me!  Good God! what are you?  You are no man.  Do you know what I am going to do with you?  I am going to thrash you like a dog!”

He dragged him to the fire-place.  Above the mantelpiece a stick-rack was affixed to the wall, and here were sticks and riding-whips.  Steinmetz selected a heavy whip.  His eyes were shot with blood; his mouth worked beneath his mustache.

“So,” he said, “I am going to settle with you at last.”

De Chauxville kicked and struggled, but he could not get free.  He only succeeded in half choking himself.

“You are going to swear,” said Steinmetz, “never to approach the princess again—­never to divulge what you know of her past life.”

The Frenchman was almost blue in the face.  His eyes were wild with terror.

And Karl Steinmetz thrashed him.

It did not last long.  No word was spoken.  The silence was only broken by their shuffling feet, by the startling report of each blow, by De Chauxville’s repeated gasps of pain.

The fur jacket was torn in several places.  The white shirt appeared here and there.  In one place it was stained with red.