"You need not tell me that; I know it well enough," Mayenne answered. "You are each for himself, none for me. At the same time, Paul, you will do well to remember that your interest is to forward my interest."
"To the full, monsieur. And I shall kill you St. Quentin yet. You need not call me coward; I am working for a dearer stake than any man in your ranks."
"Well," Mayenne rejoined, "get on with your tale."
Lucas went on, Mayenne listening quietly, with no further word of blame. He moved not so much as an eyelid till Lucas told of M. le Duc's departure, when he flung himself forward in his chair with a sharp oath.
"What! by daylight?"
"Aye. He was afraid, after this discovery, of being set on at night."
"He went out in broad day?"
"So Vigo said. I saw him not," Lucas answered with something of his old nonchalance.
"Mille tonnerres du diable!" Mayenne shouted. "If this is true, if he got out in broad day, I'll have the head of the traitor that let him. I'll nail it over his own gate."
"It is not worth your fret, monsieur," Lucas said lightly. "If you did, how long would it avail? Souvent homme trahie; that is the only fixed fact about him. If they pass St. Quentin to-day, they will pass some one else to-morrow, and some one else still the day after."