“You tell me that Feisul knows, and yet...”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you that,” laughed Jeremy.  “It was this other man who said so.  I never deceived anyone; I’m an honest fellow, I am.  Remember, I warned you against him when we talked in the hotel; you can’t blame me.  I told you he was up to mischief.  I advised you to keep a careful eye on him and to look twice at his paper!  Wallah!  You must be a lamb in foxskin.  My master is a wolf in a woolly overcoat!  Wait till you’ve seen him eat that chicken that you brought, and then you’ll know what kind of a man he is!

“You see, you should have given me money when I asked you for it.  I’m a fellow with a price, I am.  Whoever pays my price gets his money’s worth.  If you’d had the sense to pay me more than this man does, I’d have helped you trick him instead of helping him trick you; but he gave me my wages before dinner and you gave me nothing, so here you are, and I wouldn’t like to be keeping your pair of trousers warm!  I tell you, this Ramsden effendi is an awful fellow, who will stick at nothing, and I’m worse because I’m honest and do what I’m paid to do!”

I took the precaution of putting my arm around Rene, for it was likely that he had another weapon hidden somewhere, and the obvious thing for him to do was to shoot the two of us and make a bolt for it.  For a second I thought I felt his hand moving; but it was Jeremy’s, searching all his pockets and feeling for hidden steel.  So I pulled out a cigar and lit a match.

Of course, anyone’s face looks ghastly by that sort of sudden light; but Rene’s was a picture of hate, rage, baffled cunning and fear, such as I had never seen; his eyes looked like an animal’s at bay, and the way his lips parted from his teeth conveyed the impression that he was searching his mind wildly for a desperate remedy that would ruin all concerned except himself.

But it was only a stale old recourse that he had.  In a man’s extremity he turns by instinct to his own tin gods for help, and you may read his whole heart and religion then.

“Very well; very well,” he said, as if he were on the rack, speaking hurriedly to get it over with.  “I make the sacrifice.  You will find my money in an inner vest pocket underneath my vest.  It is a life’s savings.  Take it, and let me go.  It is not much—­only a little—­I am not a rich man—­I had hoped to be, but it would mean a fortune to you no doubt.  Take it and be merciful; give me back the smaller packet of the two, keep the larger, and let me go.”

Out of curiosity I reached inside his vest and pulled out both packets.  Jeremy struck a match.  The smaller packet contained a draft on Paris for a quarter of a million francs.  The larger held nothing but correspondence.  I returned them to him.

“Listen!” I said.  “I’ve never yet murdered a man, so if you provide me with another excuse for murdering you, you’ll be a virgin victim.  Keep that in mind!”