Pérousse looked at him sharply. But there was no satire in Bernhoff’s fixed and glassy eye, and no expression whatever in his woodenly-composed countenance.
“We entertain different opinions on the matter, it is evident!” he said; “You will at least grant that if he cannot be arrested, he can be carefully watched?”
“He is carefully watched!” replied Bernhoff; “That is to say, as far as I can watch him!”
“Good!” and Pérousse smiled, somewhat relieved. “Then on the first suspicion of a treasonable act——”
“I shall arrest him—in the King’s name, when the King signs the warrant,” said Bernhoff; “But he is one of Sergius Thord’s followers, and at the present juncture it might be unwise to touch any member of that particularly inflammable body.”
Pérousse frowned.
“Sergius Thord ought to have been hanged or shot years ago——”
“Then why did not you hang or shoot him?” enquired Bernhoff.
“I was not in office.”
“Why do you not hang or shoot him now?”