"Not a bit of it. They was open, and read jest as fair as need be."
"Probably he was imprudent, and said something which compromised him. Stone walls, you know, have ears in Austria."
"Well, I don't know."
"It is very easy for an American to get into trouble with the Austrian government. There is a natural antipathy between them."
"Damn such a government."
"Exactly; you're quite right there."
"Why, if you or me was to go down to Austria, and happen to rip out what we thought of 'em, where's the guarantee that they wouldn't stick us down in some of their prisons, and nobody be any wiser for it?"
"There is no guarantee at all."
"I've heerd said that such things has happened."
"No doubt of it. About this German,—I should advise your friend to be cautious how he accuses him of any intention of having him arrested. If the letters had been sealed, there might have been some ground for suspicion; but as the case stands, I do not see how there can be any. And it is a little hard upon a man, when he meant to do a kindness, to charge him with playing such a trick as that."