‘One moment!’ I said. ‘Supposing I kill you, M. le Capitaine, what becomes of your errand here?’
‘Don’t trouble yourself;’ he answered with a sneer he had misread my slowness and hesitation. ‘It will not happen, Monsieur. And in any case the thought need not harass you. I have a Lieutenant.’
‘Yes, but what of my mission?’ I replied bluntly. ‘I have no lieutenant.’
‘You should have thought of that before you interfered with my boots,’ he retorted with contempt.
‘True,’ I said overlooking his manner. ‘But better late than never. I am not sure, now I think of it, that my duty to Monseigneur will let me fight.’
‘You will swallow the blow?’ he cried, spitting on the ground offensively. ‘DIABLE!’ And the Lieutenant, standing on one side with his hands behind him and his shoulders squared, laughed grimly.
‘I have not made up my mind,’ I answered irresolutely.
‘Well, NOM DE DIEU! make it up,’ the Captain replied, with an ugly sneer. He took a swaggering step this way and that, playing his weapon. ‘I am afraid, Lieutenant, that there will be no sport to-day,’ he continued in a loud aside. ‘Our cock has but a chicken heart.’
‘Well,’ I said coolly, ‘I do not know what to do. Certainly it is a fine day, and a fair piece of ground. And the sun stands well. But I have not much to gain by killing you, M. le Capitaine, and it might get me into an awkward fix. On the other hand, it would not hurt me to let you go.’
‘Indeed!’ he said contemptuously, looking at me as I should look at a lackey.