“If the truth must be spoken I have every reason for believing that the majority, if not all of those present, were as sober as you and I are now.”
“Well, we haven’t had anything to intoxicate us—that is quite certain,” said the young man, with a smile.
The pirate continued—
“‘What is going to happen?’ I asked the count in a low voice.
“‘You see all those men,’ said the count, in a voice which vibrated with emotion; ‘they are mostly young men; in every case, they are robust. Well, my good friend, all these young men whom you see are about to poignard each other—to attempt to kill each other with an unimaginable ferocity.’
“I repressed an exclamation.
“‘What is it you tell me? Why, these men have the appearance of being intimate friends.’
“‘They are; and it is necessary that they should be, and that they should possess a great reciprocity of esteem in order to carry out the terrible combat whose conditions they are even now arranging.’
“I heard this with stupefaction. I tried to believe myself the victim of a joke on the part of my friend; but the tone of his voice left me no room to doubt.
“Besides, the precautions we had taken to assist at the combat of the gladiators; the semi-revelations and mysterious occurrences of the evening did not permit me to suppose that my friend told me anything but the exact truth.