"I can't go back to the village?" demanded Guillaume, sullenly.
"In my turn I must beg you to remember that I now carry a revolver. Come, M. Guillaume, we 've played a close hand, but the odd trick 's mine. Go back and tell your employers not to waste their time on me. No, nor their money. They have won the big stake; let them be content. And again let me remind you that Paul de Roustache has your twenty thousand francs. I don't think you 'll get them from him, but you might. From me you 'll get nothing; and if you try the law—oh, think, my friend, how very silly you and your Government will look!"
As he spoke he went up to Guillaume and took him by the arm, exerting a friendly and persuasive pressure, under which Guillaume presently found himself mounting the eminence. The wheels sounded nearer now, and Dieppe's ears were awake to their movements. The pair began to walk down the other side of the slope towards the Cross, and the carriage came into their view. It was easy of identification: its broken-down, lopsided top marked it beyond mistake.
An instant later Dieppe recognised the burly figure of the driver, who was walking by his horses' heads.
"Wonderfully convenient!" he exclaimed. "This fellow will carry you to Sasellano without delay."
Guillaume did not—indeed could not—refuse to obey the prompting of the Captain's arm, but he grumbled as he went.
"I made sure of getting your papers," he said.
"Unlooked-for difficulties will arise, my dear M. Guillaume."
"I thought the reward was as good as in my pocket."
"The reward?" The Captain stopped and looked in his companion's face with some amusement and a decided air of gratification. "There was a reward? Oh, I am important, it seems!"