“And you were my friend. What is the value of it all? I would have crushed you like a beetle if you stood in my way to him. Deviltry is the only happiness. I think he was beforehand with me in that. What a poor idiot to let him be! I might have enjoyed a minute’s bliss for the price of my soul, and now my only hope of it is by killing him.”
“That you shall never do if I can prevent it.”
He rolled over on his back, thrust his arms beneath his head and lay staring at me with deeply melancholy eyes.
“Let’s cry an armistice for the night,” he said, in a low, gentle voice.
“Forever, Duke!”
“Between us two? Why not—on all questions but the one?”
“Find some pity in your heart, even for him.”
“Never!” He jerked out an arm and shook it savagely at the sky. “Never!”
I gave a heavy sigh.
“Well,” I said, “let’s look to your foot, at least.”