"All that I can do for you, old chap, is to offer you a place in my band. You'll be a private soldier, to begin with. Under my orders, you shall see how a general wins a battle . . . and how he pockets the booty, by himself and for himself. Does that suit you . . . Tommy?"
Altenheim was beside himself with fury. He gnashed his teeth:
"You are making a mistake, Lupin," he mumbled, "you are making a mistake. . . . I don't want anybody either; and this business gives me no more difficulty than plenty of others which I have pulled off. . . . What I said was said in order to effect our object more quickly and without inconveniencing each other."
"You're not inconveniencing me," said Lupin, scornfully.
"Look here! If we don't combine, only one of us will succeed."
"That's good enough for me."
"And he will only succeed by passing over the other's body. Are you prepared for that sort of duel, Lupin? A duel to the death, do you understand? . . . The knife is a method which you despise; but suppose you received one, Lupin, right in the throat?"
"Aha! So, when all is said, that's what you propose?"
"No, I am not very fond of shedding blood. . . . Look at my fists: I strike . . . and my man falls. . . . I have special blows of my own. . . . But the other one kills . . . remember . . . the little wound in the throat. . . . Ah, Lupin, beware of him, beware of that one! . . . He is terrible, he is implacable. . . . Nothing stops him."
He spoke these words in a low voice and with such excitement that Sernine shuddered at the hideous thought of the unknown murderer: