"Yes, and that sight will repay me for all that has been done to me—that revenge I shall have—soon!—just as soon as they sweep up that stable litter of Belgians over there!
"_Then_ we’ll see! Then perhaps I’ll get my recognition from the Bosches!
"What do I care for France or for them, either? I’m of no nation; I’m nothing; I’m for _myself_! The Bosches were the kinder to me, and they get what I don’t need, _voilà tout_!"
There came a long pause, and then Wildresse’s heavy tones once more:
"I’ll give you your chance. Yes, in spite of your treachery and your ingratitude, I’ll give you your chance!
"You have a brain—such as it is. It’s a woman’s brain, of course, but it can figure out on which side the bread is buttered.
"Listen: I ought to twist your neck. You’ve tried to put mine into the _lunette_. You could have sent me up against a dead wall if you had given that paper you burned to the _flics_. No, you didn’t. You enjoyed a crisis of nerves and you burned it. I _know_ you burned it, because I admit that you tell the truth.
"Bon! Now, therefore, I do not instantly twist your neck. No! On the contrary, I reason with you. I do not turn you over to the _sergots_. I _could_! Why? Voyons, let us be reasonable! I was not hatched yesterday. No! Do you suppose I have trusted you all these years without having taken any little precautions? _Tiens_, you are beginning to look at me, eh?
"Well, then, listen: if in future you have any curiosity concerning _lunettes_ and dead walls, let me inform you that you are qualified to embellish either.
"_Tiens_! You seem startled. It never occurred to you to ask why I have had certain papers written out by you, or why I have had you affix your pretty signature to so many little documents which you could not read because the ink was invisible.
"No. You have never thought about such matters, have you? But, all the same, I have all I require to make you sneeze into the basket, or to play blindman’s buff between a dead wall and a squad of execution.
"And _now_!—Now that you know enough to hold your tongue, will you hold it in future and be honest and loyal to the hand that picked you out of the gutter and that has fed you ever since?"
"I’ll twist your neck for you, and I’ll do it now!" he bellowed. "I’ll snap that white neck of yours——"