'Oh, of course we'll foil it now,' Sarrasin said carelessly. 'We should be pretty simpletons if we couldn't foil the plot now that we have the threads in our hands.'
'What do you make of it—murder?' Hamilton lowered his voice and almost shuddered at his own suggestion.
'Murder, of course—the murder of the Dictator, and of everyone who comes in the way of that murder. If the Dictator gets to Gloria the game of the ruffians is up—that we know by our advices—and if he is murdered in England he certainly can't get to Gloria. There you are!'
Nobody, however jealous for the Dictator, could doubt the sympathy and devotion of Captain Sarrasin to the Dictator and his cause. Yet his cool and business-like way of discussing the question grated on Hamilton's ears. Hamilton, perhaps, did not make quite enough of allowance for a man who had been in so many enterprises as Captain Sarrasin, and who had got into the way of thinking that his own life and the life of every other such man is something for which a game is played by the Fates every day, and which he must be ready to forfeit at any moment.
'The question is, what are we to do?' Hamilton asked sharply.
'Well, these fellows are sure to know that his Excellency leaves to-morrow, and so the attempt will be made to-night.'
'Suppose we rouse up Sir Rupert—indeed, he is probably not in bed yet—and send for the local police, and have these ruffians arrested? We could arrest them ourselves without waiting for the police.'
Sarrasin thought for a little. 'Wouldn't do,' he said. 'We have no evidence at all against them, except a telegram from an American unknown to anyone here, and who might be mistaken. Besides, I fancy that if they are very desperate they have got accomplices who will take good care that the work is carried out somehow. You see, what they have set their hearts on is to prevent the Dictator from getting back to Gloria, and that so simplifies their business for them. I have no doubt that there is someone hanging about who would manage to do the trick if these two fellows were put under arrest—all the easier because of the uproar caused by their arrest. No, we must give the fellows rope enough. We must let them show what their little game is, and then come down upon them. After all, we are all right, don't you see?'
Hamilton did not quite see, but he was beginning already to be taken a good deal with the cool and calculating ways of the stout old Paladin, for whom life could not possibly devise a new form of danger.
'I fancy you are right,' Hamilton said after a moment of silence.