“For what?”
“To threaten me first, and then to offer me your and my liberty. He swore to me that you had been arrested, and that all the papers had been found upon you; that you were charged with Vastic’s murder, and that he could secure your conviction—and then he offered me liberty.”
“On what condition?”
“Practically the same as you have mentioned. You have done well for me, my friend, but the Prince is too tortuous for straight-minded men to deal with him.”
I began to feel about as cheap as a five-cent piece. He had failed with Helga, and then made a show of submission to me in order to use me to influence her. It was not a pleasant reflection.
“What did you say to him?”
“That so long as a breath remained in my body and a pulse in my heart I would spend that breath and exhaust the pulse to vindicate my father’s memory and revenge him.”
I had no answer to make; and sat chewing the cud of this new reverse. Helga saw how hard I was hit, how keen my disappointment, and tried gently to soften the blow.
“No honest man can deal with the Prince,” she said; and added with a smile: “You have secured the papers by a magnificent stroke and we shall win now. It was for you I was troubled.”
“It’s good of you to soften the fall, but it hurts a bit all the same.” My smile was a very rueful one. “If it was mere revenge I should urge you to give it up; but it’s your father’s memory, and I can’t.”