"You will be foolish if you make any fuss here," he muttered, his arm raised to ward off a blow.

"Besides, I'm going," he continued, swallowing nervously as he spoke.

"Let me go." "Going ?" "Yes." "Do you mean," Claude exclaimed in astonishment, "that you are going for good ?" "Yes, and if you will take my advice"-- with a look of sinister meaning--"you will go too.

That is all." "Why?
Why ?" Claude repeated.
Louis' only answer was a shudder, which told Claude that if the other did not know all, he knew much.

Dismayed and confounded, Mercier stepped back, and, with a secret grin of satisfaction, Louis turned again to his task of searching the room.