"You enjoyed playing your mouse just a trifle too long, old cat," said he.
Guillaume lay very still, exhausted, beaten, and defenceless. Dieppe released his hands, and, rising, stood looking down at him. A smile came on his face.
"We are now in a better position to adjust our accounts fairly," he observed, as he took from his pocket M. Guillaume's portfolio. "Listen," he commanded; and Guillaume turned weary but spiteful eyes to him. "Here is your portfolio. Take it. Look at it."
"Well?" asked Dieppe, when the examination was ended.
"You have robbed me of twenty-five thousand francs."
The Captain looked at him for a moment with a frown. But the next instant he smiled.
"I must make allowances for the state of your temper," he remarked. "But I wish you would carry all your money in notes. That draft, now, is no use to me. Hence"--he shrugged his shoulders regretfully--"I am obliged to leave your Government still no less than twenty-five thousand francs in debt to me."
"What!" cried Guillaume, with a savage stare.
"Oh, yes, you know that well. They have fifty thousand which certainly don't belong to them, and certainly do to me."
"That money 's forfeited," growled Guillaume.
"If you like, then, I forfeit twenty-five thousand of theirs. But I allow it in account with them. The debt now stands reduced by half."
"I 'll get it back from you somehow," threatened Guillaume, who was helpless, but not cowed.
"That will be difficult. I gave it to Paul de Roustache to discharge a claim he had on me."
"Yes. It 's true he lent me five thousand again; but that 's purely between him and me. And I shall have spent it long before you can even begin to take steps to recover it." He paused a moment and then added, "If you still hanker after your notes, I should recommend you to find your friend and accomplice, M. Paul."
"Who can tell? I saw him last on the road across the river--it leads to Sasellano, I believe." Dieppe kept his eye on his vanquished opponent, but Guillaume threatened no movement. The Captain dropped the revolver into his pocket, stooped to pull up a tuft of grass with moist earth adhering to it, and, with the help of his handkerchief, made a primitive plaster to stanch the bleeding of his ear. As he was so engaged, the sound of wheels slowly climbing the hill became audible from the direction of the village.