"With the knife, yes," said Altenheim, quite unperturbed. "But I have always had a wish to poison some one. I wanted to see what it was like."
"By Jove, old chap, you choose your subjects well! A Russian prince!"
He walked up to Altenheim and, in a confidential tone, said:
"Do you know what would have happened if you had succeeded, that is to say, if my friends had not seen me return at three o'clock at the latest? Well, at half-past three the prefect of police would have known exactly all that there was to know about the so-called Baron Altenheim; and the said baron would have been copped before the day was out and clapped into jail."
"Pooh!" said Altenheim. "Prison one escapes from . . . whereas one does not come back from the kingdom where I was sending you."
"True, but you would have to send me there first; and that's not so easy."
"I only wanted a mouthful of one of those cakes."
"Are you quite sure?"
"Try."
"One thing's certain, my lad: you haven't the stuff yet which great adventurers are made of; and I doubt if you'll ever have it, considering the sort of traps you lay for me. A man who thinks himself worthy of leading the life which you and I have the honor to lead must also be fit to lead it, and, for that, must be prepared for every eventuality: he must even be prepared not to die if some ragamuffin or other tries to poison him. . . . An undaunted soul in an unassailable body: that is the ideal which he must set before himself . . . and attain. Try away, old chap. As for me, I am undaunted and unassailable. Remember King Mithridates!"