“Tell him the truth, M. Boreski,” said I in a tone loud enough to reach those below.
“If I tell them, it will turn their vengeance upon you for Vastic’s death,” he said in a low tone.
“Better upon me than upon mademoiselle,” I replied quickly, in the same loud tone. “I am not afraid of the truth. Tell them I fooled you as well.”
“It is not whom you think,” he said.
“Holy Grace of God!” exclaimed the man below.
Realizing the effect which the discovery had produced, and believing firmly in the eloquence of acts, I obeyed my next impulse, and jumping over the barricade ran half-way down the stairs and stood where the light from below shone upon me.
“I will show you for yourselves,” I said.
The suddenness of the action told, and perhaps the recklessness of it helped me. The men stared up at me as if astounded, and for a moment not one of them moved. Then two revolvers were raised and levelled.
“Stay,” I cried in a loud voice of command. “If you fire at me it will be the sentence of death on your three comrades up there,” and I pointed up the stairway. “You understand, Ivan?”
“By the living God, I do,” he answered, and his voice, tremulous with earnestness, heightened the effect of the situation.