Then, after a few moments of gloomy reflection, he murmured, his eyes wild, his lips contracted in a sardonic smile:
"But nonsense! she is rich; she loves an honourable man, who loves her in return. She will still have Suzanne and Segoffin. Instead of loathing me, she shall mourn for me, and, so far as she is concerned, my death shall be enshrouded in the same mystery as my life."
As he spoke Cloarek stepped toward a table on which a pair of pistols were lying; but Segoffin, who had not once taken his eyes off his employer, sprang forward and, seizing the pistols before the captain could reach them, removed the charge and coolly replaced the weapons.
"Wretch!" exclaimed Cloarek, seizing Segoffin by the collar, and shaking him violently, "you shall pay dearly for your audacity."
"Time presses, M. Yvon, and you have more important business on hand than shaking poor old Segoffin. Your time is too precious for that!"
The head gunner's coolness restored Cloarek to himself, and sinking despondently into a chair, he said, gloomily:
"You are right, I am a fool. What shall I do? My brain seems to be on fire."
"Do you really want to know what I think you had better do?"
"Yes."
"I think you had better go to Havre immediately."