"Good!" Lalage went on. "That letter was written in gaol. It looked so innocent that the people there passed it. They did not know that every letter had a meaning. It seemed all about my defence. You acted on that letter?"
"I did," Luigi growled, "I saw Antonio at once. It was not long before he was on the track. Your man will be here tonight."
They smoked on for some little time idly. These men were prepared for most things, but they preferred idleness and tobacco to anything else. It was only Lalage who was restless and uneasy. As the time passed he glanced impatiently at the door. Then there came another knock without.
Beppo crept to the door. He came back presently followed by two men. The latter one was dressed in superior fashion to the rest. With a yell Lalage flew across the room and turned the key in the lock.
"Enter, Signor Luigo Balmayne," he cried mockingly. "Signor, I have the honour to wish you a very good evening. You are most welcome."
Balmayne promptly collapsed into the chair that Beppo had put for him. He glanced in a white and agitated way round the room. There was not a friendly face to be seen anywhere. Given immunity from protection, and not one man there would have refused to cut his throat for a handful of coppers.
There was no avenue of escape. The man's life was in danger, and he knew it. With mocking politeness Lalage tendered him a cigarette. He pushed it aside; he could not have smoked for untold money. There was a great lump in his throat now, a wild beating of his heart.
"You know me?" Lalage said. "We have met before. It was you who betrayed me to the police at Ravenna. In the dock there I swore to be revenged upon you. And I am a man of my word."
Balmayne tried to say something, but failed.
"I had two years for that," Lalage went on, "two weary years which is an agony to a restless man like myself. You betrayed me, because I was in your way, and so that you could keep the spoil to yourself. You were poorer and less prosperous in those days than you seem to be now. You are rich."