I pointed out that we knew that what he had done he had done at
Saint-Eustache's instigation, therefore the true guilt was
Saint-Eustache's and upon him alone the punishment should fall.
But ere this could come to pass, he himself must add his testimony
to ours - mine and Rodenard's. If he would come to Toulouse and
do that make a full confession of how he had been set to do this
murdering - the Chevalier de Saint-Eustache, who was the real
culprit, should be the only one to suffer the penalty of the law.
If he would not do that, why, then, he must stand the consequences
himself - and the consequences would be the hangman. But in either
case he was coming to Toulouse in the morning.
It goes without saying that he was reasonable. I never for a moment
held his judgment in doubt; there is no loyalty about a cut-throat,
and it is not the way of his calling to take unnecessary risk.
We had just settled the matter in a mutually agreeable manner when
the door opened again, and his confederate - rendered uneasy, no
doubt, by his long absence - came to see what could be occasioning
this unconscionable delay in the slitting of the throats of a pair
of sleeping men.
Beholding us there in friendly conclave, and no doubt considering
that under the circumstances his intrusion was nothing short of an
impertinence, that polite gentleman uttered a cry - which I should
like to think was an apology for having disturbed us and turned to
go with most indecorous precipitancy.
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