Meantime M. Ferraud walked the deck alone, and finally when Breitmann approached him, it was no more than he had been expecting.
"Among other things," began the secretary, with ominous calm, "I should like to see the impression of your thumb."
"That lock was an ingenious contrivance. It was only by the merest accident I discovered it."
"It must be a vile business."
"Serving one's country? I do not agree with you. Wait a moment, Mr. Breitmann; let us not misunderstand each other. I do not know what fear is; but I do know that I am one of the few living who put above all other things in the world, France: France with her wide and beautiful valleys, her splendid mountains, her present peace and prosperity. And my life is nothing if in giving it I may confer a benefit."
"Why did you not tell the whole story? A Frenchman, and to deny oneself a climax like this?"
M. Ferraud remained silent.
"If you had not meddled! Well, you have, and these others must bear the brunt with you, should anything serious happen."
"Without my permission you will not remain in Ajaccio a single hour. But that would not satisfy me. I wish to prove to you your blindness. I will make you a proposition. Tear up those papers, erase the memory from your mind, and I will place in your hands every franc of those two millions."
Breitmann laughed harshly. "You have said that I am mad; very well, I am. But I know what I know, and I shall go on to the end. You are clever. I do not know who you are nor why you are here with your warnings; but this will I say to you: to-morrow we land, and every hour you are there, death shall lurk at your elbow. Do you understand me?"