"Two men?"
"Yes, two men," he answered. "One, the man who captured me; the other, the man who let my friend go free to-day."
"It surprised you that I let him go? That was prudence, M. de Cocheforêt," I replied, "nothing more. I am an old gambler--I know when the stakes are too high for me. The man who caught a lion in his wolf-pit had no great catch."
"No, that is true," he answered, smiling. "And yet--I find two men in your skin."
"I dare say that there are two in most men's skins," I answered, with a sigh, "but not always together. Sometimes one is there, and sometimes the other."
"How does the one like taking up the other's work?" he asked keenly.
I shrugged my shoulders. "That is as may be," I said. "You do not take an estate without the debts."
He did not answer for a moment, and I fancied that his thoughts had reverted to his own case. But on a sudden he looked at me again. "Will you answer me a question, M. de Berault?" he said, with a winning smile.
"Perhaps," I said.
"Then tell me--it is a tale that is, I am sure, worth the telling. What was it that, in a very evil hour for me, sent you in search of me?"