“Possibly not,” von Bertheim replied dryly. “But I do not think he is likely to try it a third time.”
“Ah, you are not going to give him the chance? That’s right. I am off now to save my skin. Suppose we go together?”
“With all my heart, Captain,” Ludovic laughed. “But I am not ready to start just yet.”
“The devil you are not!” Ompertz exclaimed in surprise. “Why, you are not, I take it, such a coxcomb as to trouble about packing your trunks when the trunk that stands on your two legs is likely to have a hole picked in it.”
“Hardly,” the other laughed. “Still, I can assure you, Captain von Ompertz, that there is no such especial hurry for either of us to take to our heels. I am quite safe, and will take you under my protection.”
Ompertz stared and then broke into a laugh. “Alle Wetter! But you have no mean opinion of yourself, my brave Lieutenant. To stand man to man, or to a round half dozen, is one thing; to pit oneself against the seven devils united in the scraggy person of our Chancellor is quite another.”
“You are right enough, my friend; and I admit that I have run a couple of very foolish risks. But now I do not mean to fight, to oppose myself to this incarnation of the seven devils.”
“That’s well,” Ompertz hastily replied. “Discretion is virtue, even in a soldier, when the odds are against him. Boldness is for the big battalions, as I have learnt often enough. So you are going to retreat and fall back upon a less dangerous wooing. Good! We may as well go together, at least part of the way.”
“You mistake me,” von Bertheim said quietly. “I do not intend to leave Waldenthor, at least just yet.”
“Then I do,” Ompertz exclaimed, catching up his hat and taking a stride towards the door. “I have warned you, and, as it seems, to no purpose. I am sorry, but that your brandy is a good viaticum, to have wasted so much time over the business.”