"I am not one to offer advice where it is not desired," he said; "but I assure you, M. Webster, that what I have told you is true, and furthermore had any one of three or four persons who are on this boat heard what I heard, that girl and her father would have been under espionage for the remainder of their lives."
It was easy to see that Chevrial spoke in deadly earnest, and, in spite of himself, Dan was impressed and sobered.
"I beg your pardon," he said; "perhaps you are right; but to an American the very idea of such a system is laughable—it savours too much of cheap melodrama. But why should the story Miss Vard told me interest any one?"
"My dear sir," answered Chevrial, drily, "when a girl goes about boasting that her father is more powerful than the Czar or Kaiser! Suppose she had stopped there, any hearer would have concluded that he was an anarchist, and therefore to be watched. But she went further: she asserted that he can blow up forts and destroy armies! That he can wreck battleships! Why, M. Webster, it is only four days since La Liberté, the greatest of French battleships, was destroyed in the harbour of Toulon by an agency not yet determined!"
"But you don't imagine," he stammered; "surely you don't think...."
Chevrial flipped away his cigarette-ash negligently.
"That La Liberté was destroyed by this man? Absurd! But, nevertheless, it is a bad time to make such boasts."
"I can see that," agreed Dan. "I will speak to Miss Vard."
"I would do so, by all means. She seems a most interesting girl, and I should regret to see her involved in an unpleasant situation. Or her father," Chevrial added. "A most interesting enthusiast!"