“Would you have been satisfied with less?”
“Yes,” said Bournef, candidly.
“Unfortunately, I can’t make it less. I have only one means of escaping death; and that is to open my safe for you. And my safe contains four bundles of a thousand bank-notes each.”
Bournef could not get over his astonishment and became more and more suspicious.
“How do you know that, after taking the four millions, we shall not insist on more?”
“Insist on what? The secret of the site?”
“Because you know that I would as soon die as tell it you. The four millions are the maximum. Do you want them or don’t you? I ask for no promise in return, no oath of any kind, for I am convinced that, when you have filled your pockets, you will have but one thought, to clear off, without handicapping yourselves with a murder which might prove your undoing.”
The argument was so unanswerable that Bournef ceased discussing and asked:
“Is the safe in this room?”