"In it were the names of those gentlemen who remained debtors to the banker of the roulette-table and those whose debts of honor were unredeemed."
"You act comedy well, exceedingly well, Fräulein; but, all the same, you will be hissed off the stage. Written characters must witness against you."
"They will witness against no one. Knowing that roulette is a forbidden game, being unable to open the safe, I took the precaution to pour aquafortis through the keyhole; and they into whose hands the 'yellow' book has fallen have not found a single name inscribed upon its pages, for they are all effaced. I was present when it was produced; there was no writing to be seen."
At these words there was a loud clanking of chains, Ivan striking together those which fettered his hands.
Chevalier Galban was wild with rage.
"You are truly an imp of Satan, Zeneida Ilmarinen. By this demoniacal act you have deprived Siberia and the scaffold of ten thousand conspirators!"
"Let us add their families, and reckon it at a hundred thousand."
"Only a woman could be capable of such an abomination. And you dare to tell it to me?"
"What have I to fear from you? I have in my possession a letter from the Czar, authorizing me to leave this unhappy country and to go wherever I like."
Chevalier Galban, seeing that she was thus outside the pale of his castigation, wished to return to his tone of studied French courtesy.