"Zut! She will be as safe as in her own house. Had Breitmann not gone to-night, had any of us stopped him, I could not say. Unless you tell her, she will never know that she stood in danger. Don't you understand? If I marred one move these men intend to make, if I showed a single card, they would defeat me for the time; for they would make new plans of which I should not have the least idea. You comprehend?"
Fitzgerald nodded.
"It all lies in the hollow of my hand. Breitmann made one mistake; he should have pushed me off the boat, into the dark. He knows that I know. And there he confuses me. But, I repeat, he is not vicious, only mad."
"Where will it be?"
"It will not be;" and M. Ferraud smiled as he livened up the burnt wick of his candle.
"Treachery on the part of the drivers? Oh, don't you see that you can trust me wholly?"
"Well, it will be like this;" and reluctantly the secret agent outlined his plan. "Now, go to bed and sleep, for you and I shall need some to draw upon during the next three or four days. Hunting for buried treasures was never a junketing. The admiral will tell you that. At dawn!" Then he added whimsically: "I trust we haven't disturbed the royal family below."
"Hang the royal family!"
"Their own parliament, or Reichstag, will arrange for that!" and the little man laughed.
Dawn came soon enough, yellow and airless.