"Don't worry," he answered.

"You can have that; there ought to be some six or eight thousand francs in the safe.

But that is all, and that is the last of our common capital,--this after twenty years of toil, danger, and anxiety, and we have not twenty years before us to make a fresh fortune in." "Yes," continued Mascarin, "we are getting old, and therefore have the greater reason for making one grand stroke to assure our fortune.

Were I to fall ill to-morrow, all would go to smash." "Quite true," returned the doctor, with a slight shudder.
"We must, and that is certain, venture on a bold stroke.

I have said this for years, and woven a web of gigantic proportions.