“Never.”
“Yes, your death will make it easier for us.”
“My death? Thanks to the information lodged by the colonel, in a few hours you will be tracked down and most likely caught: in any case, you will be unable to pursue your search. Therefore you have hardly any choice. It’s the money which I’m offering you, or else . . . prison.”
“And, if we accept,” asked Bournef, to whom the argument seemed to appeal, “when shall we be paid?”
“At once.”
“Then the money is here?”
“Yes.”
“A contemptible sum, as I said before?”
“No, a much larger sum than you hope for; infinitely larger.”
“How much?”