"To-night, in two hours from now, my friends are to hand in to the Grand Journal, not the letters themselves, but an exact list of the letters, with the Grand-duke Hermann's annotations."
"That list shall not be handed in."
"It shall not be."
"You will give it to me."
"It shall be placed in the hands of Your . . . in your hands."
"Likewise, all the letters?"
"Likewise, all the letters."
"Without any of them being photographed?"
"Without any of them being photographed."
The stranger spoke in a very calm voice, containing not the least accent of entreaty nor the least inflection of authority. He neither ordered nor requested; he stated the inevitable actions of Arsène Lupin. Things would happen as he said. And they would happen, whatever Arsène Lupin's demands should be, at whatever price he might value the performance of those actions. The conditions were accepted beforehand.