The last few hours seemed to have brought us into a greater intimacy.

He addressed me by name, and his manner, although it was still respectful enough, was somehow altered.
"Captain Rotherby," he said, "you do not seem to appreciate the position in which you stand.

You are young, and life is hot in your veins, and yet to-day, as you sit there, your liberty is forfeit,--perhaps even, if Tapilow should die, your life! Have you ever heard any stories, I wonder," he added, leaning a little toward me, "about French prisons ?" "Are you trying to frighten me, Louis ?" I asked.
"No!" he answered, "but I want you to realize that you are in a very serious position." "I know that," I answered.

"Don't think, Louis," I continued, "that what I did last night was the result of a rash impulse.

I had sworn since a certain day in the autumn of last year that the first time I came face to face with that man, whether it was in the daytime or the nighttime, in a friend's house or on the street, I would punish him.
Well, I have kept my word.