"Then you'd better stop and prevent it. I shall keep my word. But you know that pretty well by this time, I fancy."
The man addressed shifted uneasily and his chair scraped on the floor.
"You'll do what I say, Gassen," he replied with an effort to put authority into his voice.
"Then you'll have to say what I say. That's all. I haven't come here to-night for fun. Do you suppose there will be no violence, as you call it, if they succeed in persuading the Englishman to come to the rescue of the old dotard? Tell me that."
"Nothing must be done here any way."
Gassen swore contemptuously. "Well, it doesn't matter. You haven't seen him and I have; and you can take it from me that he isn't the man to take what's in store for him here without putting up a fight for his life."
This unexpected tribute to my fighting instincts was flattering perhaps; but I knew what lay behind it; and it came out the next instant.
"I may as well tell you what I mean to do. If they do get him here, I shall shoot him straight away without wasting any time in talk."
"You're too reckless. You'll get us all into trouble."
"Reckless?" he repeated with a curt laugh. "I'm not reckless enough to give him a chance at me."