"I came a long way to visit you, sir," he politely stated, "and would have regretted had you felt otherwise than you have intimated."
This fencing with buttons on the foils was soon succeeded by the sharp points unprotected.
"Ardelle, the longer the breath is in you the more you can tell; is the breath worth the telling?"
"You speak in riddles, Monsieur," quietly replied the prisoner.
"Do you deny that you are Ardelle?" demanded Roque.
"Am I now on trial?" was the counter-question.
Roque extended a menacing finger. "Have a care, man!" he thundered.
The prisoner calmly ignored the growing wrath of his arch-enemy, shrugged his shoulders, and with a wave of the hand indicated that continued argument was useless.
"You will have until to-morrow morning to decide whether you will accept me as an advocate or an accuser."
The Frenchman turned wearily toward the window, and with his hands folded behind him stood watching through the bars the little gray cloudlets pushing their way through the blue expanse of the sky. It might be that this view would not concern him after the morrow. He was thus engaged when Roque stamped his way out of the room. Henri would have paused in the hope of one look from Anglin but the latter seemed wholly unconscious of the presence of the lads.