"Do you mean you deliberately choose to remain here, rather than accept the chance I offer you?"
"Sacre! I have as yet heard of no chance," he replied easily, sinking indolently back into his old seat against the wall. "I shall be fairly comfortable here for the while, though I must say I have used a better grade of tobacco than this furnished me."
For the moment I was in despair as to the outcome of my mission, nor did I accept the proffered hand of the prisoner. Here was a totally different order of man from what had ever come my way before, nor did I know how best to meet him. How much of his vain and reckless speech came from the heart, and how much of it was merely a mask with which to test my purpose, I could not determine, yet I remained resolute regarding my own duty, and accordingly sat coolly down upon the chest, determined to play out his own game with him to the bitter end.
"Quite true, Chevalier," I said, smiling pleasantly, as if I entered fully into his reckless spirit. "Doubtless you are right—needs must when the devil drives. Could you spare me a morsel of that same tobacco, until I test the quality of which you complain?" I produced a pipe from the recesses of my monk's habit, knocking the ashes out carelessly against the chest.
He passed over his pouch in silence.
"When one resteth between His Satanic Majesty and the deep sea it makes small odds at the best which direction he turns. It becomes merely a matter of taste. Death," I continued musingly as I deliberately rammed home a charge into the bowl, "must be about the same to one man as to another, except for matter of temperament; so if you can afford to sit here and welcome its coming, so can I."
"Do you mean you are sufficiently crazy to remain deliberately and die with me?"
"Certainly. I pledged your devoted wife I would rescue you, or never return alive myself. As you stubbornly refuse to listen to reason, this seems to be all that is left me. Opinions might differ as to which was crazed, but as to that we will probably neither of us ever know. May I trouble you for a light?"
I leaned forward, coolly helping myself to the burning cigarette he held forth doubtingly between his fingers, and, puffing vigorously, silently resumed my seat.
"My wife, say you?" A fresh interest appeared to sweep over him at the word, overcoming his indifference. "Did Eloise de Noyan send you here seeking to succor me?"