All was fair in love and war! There were two ways of doing it.

He could waylay Nicolas as he came from the house of the old seigneur, could call to him to throw up his hands in good highwayman fashion, and, well disguised, could get away with the money without being discovered.

Or again, he could follow Nic from the Seigneury to the Manor, discover where he kept the money, and devise a plan to steal it.
For some time he had given up smoking; but now, as a sort of celebration of his plan, he opened his cigar case, and finding two cigars left, took one out and lighted it.
"By Jove," he said to himself, "thieving is a nice come-down, I must say! But a man has to live, and I'm sick of charity--sick of it.

I've had enough." He puffed his cigar briskly, and enjoyed the forbidden and deadly luxury to the full.
Presently he got up, took his stick, came down-stairs, and passed out into the garden.

The shoulder which had been lacerated by the bear drooped forward some what, and seemed smaller than the other.