On that count alone
everything that you have is now mine by rights." Again I had to
quell an interruption. "But if we wave that point, and proceed
upon the supposition that you have dealt fairly and honourably with
me, why, then, monsieur, you have still sufficient evidence - the
word of Mademoiselle, herself, in fact - that I have won my wager.
And so, if we take this, the most lenient view of the case" - I
paused to sprinkle the sand over my writing - "your estates are
still lost to you, and pass to be my property."
"Do they, by God?" he roared, unable longer to restrain himself,
and leaping to his feet. "You have done, have you not? You have
said all that you can call to mind? You have flung insults and
epithets at me enough to earn the cutting of a dozen throats. You
have dubbed me cheat and thief" - he choked in his passion - "until
you have had your fill - is it not so? Now, listen to me, Master
Bardelys, master spy, master buffoon, master masquerader! What
manner of proceeding was yours to go to Lavedan under a false name?
How call you that? Was that, perhaps, not cheating?"
"No, monsieur, it was not," I answered quietly. "It was in the
terms of your challenge that I was free to go to Lavedan in what
guise I listed, employing what wiles I pleased. But let that be,"
I ended, and, creasing the paper, I poured the sand back into the
box, and dusted the document. "The point is hardly worth discussing
at this time of day.
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