Irromar smiled in his turn, but the smile did not reach his eyes, which were darkly threatening. “You are a bold man, Baron, to tell me that, here in my own house. You presume upon your years.”
“Scarcely,” Rollmar replied with a shrug. “Except so far as my age gives me little life to lose. Any boldness I may show comes from nature and from the knowledge that I have a mightly protector a stone’s throw away.”
If the Count wondered what that was, his guest did not at that moment enlighten him.
“Now,” Rollmar continued, with a significant glance at the clock, “should our friend, Count Irromar, persist, as I do not think he will, in his repudiation, it will become our unpleasant duty to pursue our enquiries by force.”
“Force!” Irromar laughed.
“Force,” the Chancellor repeated. “Our Count is a strong man,” he went on pleasantly, “strong in will and in sinew, he has a strong house, fortified, doubtless, by art, as it is by nature; he has a garrison at his command; but my knowledge of men tells me that he is not foolish enough to put his security to an unwisely severe test, or to imagine that it enables him to defy the resources of a State, should that State make up its mind in earnest to pull down his house about his ears.”
Irromar was on his mettle now. “That would depend,” he commented grimly. “He might begin the tussle with a winning advantage. The holding, for instance, as hostages of perhaps the two most important persons in that State.”
Rollmar gave a little triumphant smile. “I note your admission, Count, that the other is here.”
Irromar had realized the slip when it had passed his lips. He could only give a shrug of indifference. After all, a bland repudiation would hardly serve him against this self-controlled, penetrating old strategist.
“But,” the Chancellor went on, “to resume our argument. His holding these important persons would simply make it imperative that strong action should be taken. But, no. You will not make a hostage of me, Count Irromar. Had such a fate any terrors for me, I should scarcely have been at pains to put myself in your power. My life is for the State, and at my master’s disposal; I hold it worthless, when balanced against the welfare of him and his.”