Then he sat for some time in deep thought. At last he said:
"Gabriel, would you be willing to do something more to serve me?"
"Certainly," I replied; "anything."
"Would you go with me to-morrow night and tell this tale to the council of our Brotherhood? My own life and the lives of my friends, and the liberty of one dear to me, may depend upon your doing so."
"I shall go with you most willingly," I said. "To tell you the truth," I added, "While I cannot approve of your terrible Brotherhood, nevertheless what I have seen and heard tonight satisfies me that the Plutocrats should no longer cumber the earth with their presence. Men who can coolly plot, amid laughter, the death of ten million human beings, for the purpose of preserving their ill-gotten wealth and their ill-used power, should be exterminated from the face of the planet as enemies of mankind--as poisonous snakes--vermin."
He grasped my hand and thanked me.
It was pleasant to think, that night, that Estella loved me; that I had saved her; that we were under the same roof; and I wove visions in my brain brighter than the dreams of fairyland; and Estella moved everywhere amid them, a radiant angel.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE EXECUTION
"Now, Gabriel," said Max, "I will have to blindfold you--not that I mistrust you, but that I have to satisfy the laws of our society and the scruples of others."