An impressive silence followed these words, a silence that to the youth seemed to suggest eternity.  But Simoun, after some hesitation, approached him and placing a hand on his shoulder said in a moving tone:  “Basilio, you possess a secret that can ruin me and now you have just surprised me in another, which puts me completely in your hands, the divulging of which would upset all my plans.  For my own security and for the good of the cause in which I labor, I ought to seal your lips forever, for what is the life of one man compared to the end I seek?  The occasion is fitting; no one knows that I have come here; I am armed; you are defenceless; your death would be attributed to the outlaws, if not to more supernatural causes—­yet I’ll let you live and trust that I shall not regret it.  You have toiled, you have struggled with energetic perseverance, and like myself, you have your scores to settle with society.  Your brother was murdered, your mother driven to insanity, and society has prosecuted neither the assassin nor the executioner.  You and I are the dregs of justice and instead of destroying we ought to aid each other.”

Simoun paused with a repressed sigh, and then slowly resumed, while his gaze wandered about:  “Yes, I am he who came here thirteen years ago, sick and wretched, to pay the last tribute to a great and noble soul that was willing to die for me.  The victim of a vicious system, I have wandered over the world, working night and day to amass a fortune and carry out my plan.  Now I have returned to destroy that system, to precipitate its downfall, to hurl it into the abyss toward which it is senselessly rushing, even though I may have to shed oceans of tears and blood.  It has condemned itself, it stands condemned, and I don’t want to die before I have seen it in fragments at the foot of the precipice!”

Simoun extended both his arms toward the earth, as if with that gesture he would like to hold there the broken remains.  His voice took on a sinister, even lugubrious tone, which made the student shudder.

“Called by the vices of the rulers, I have returned to these islands, and under the cloak of a merchant have visited the towns.  My gold has opened a way for me and wheresoever I have beheld greed in the most execrable forms, sometimes hypocritical, sometimes shameless, sometimes cruel, fatten on the dead organism, like a vulture on a corpse, I have asked myself—­why was there not, festering in its vitals, the corruption, the ptomaine, the poison of the tombs, to kill the foul bird?  The corpse was letting itself be consumed, the vulture was gorging itself with meat, and because it was not possible for me to give it life so that it might turn against its destroyer, and because the corruption developed slowly, I have stimulated greed, I have abetted it.  The cases of injustice and the abuses multiplied themselves; I have instigated crime and acts of cruelty, so that the people might become accustomed to the idea of death.  I have