“Are you in earnest?” asked Paoli. “Do you mean it?”
“Mean it!” cried Cromillian. “Why did I leave a comfortable home in England, where I lived like a gentleman, to come here and turn bandit? Was it to plunder, to rob, to execute vengeance? Answer me, Paoli. Why am I a voluntary outlaw, destined to know no other home on earth but that which the clefts in the rocks and mountains or the maquis afford me? Say, is it to rob, think you?”
“No, no, not that, surely!” cried Paoli. “I have been with you for a year and I know that you have only taken from the rich in order to give to the poor. I know you have so frightened several who had declared the vendetta and were on the tracks of their would-be victims that they have given up the pursuit. I have seen what you have done, although I could not understand your method. But what is to be our next work, if it is not an impertinent question?”
Cromillian eyed his interrogator closely: “Well,” he said finally, “you have, undoubtedly, heard the rumour that Vandemar Della Coscia is to visit his native land, which he has not seen since he was a child.”
“Yes, I know that,” said Paoli, “and I know that the Batistellis will declare the vendetta against him if he dares to come. Now, my father was a friend of Conrad Batistelli, and I am a friend of the brothers, Pascal and Julien. I gave my word to my father on his death-bed that I would be true to the Batistellis, and their cause is my cause. If Pascal and Julien declare that Vandemar must die, I shall aid them. If I do not, I shall be false to the oath given to my father.”
“You can do as you please,” replied Cromillian, “but, from what I have told you, you know that I shall consider it my duty to protect Vandemar from the Batistellis, and from you. Besides, how do you know that Manuel Della Coscia killed Conrad Batistelli?”
“Why, there can be no doubt of it!” cried Paoli. “Was not Conrad found in his own field, stabbed to the heart by a stiletto, upon the handle of which were found the initials of Manuel Della Coscia? And did he not confess his guilt by fleeing from the island, taking his little son with him? I cannot understand why Vandemar can have the temerity to return to Corsica when the case against his father and himself is so strong. He simply invites the doom which surely awaits him.”
“I do not think he comes for any such reason,” said Cromillian. “I think the result of his visit will be to show that his father was innocent of that crime and that the Batistellis have no cause for enmity against him.”
“He will have no time to prove that,” answered Paoli. “As soon as the Batistelli brothers know that he is in Corsica, his death will be but a question of a few hours.”
“But supposing they do not know him?” said Cromillian. “Supposing they do not recognise him?”