“You are reckoning without your host, Monsieur,” I said quickly. I was boiling with rage.
“But not without my servant, Monsieur.”
“Servant?” I raged.
“Yes. Do you realize that I have but to place these things in the hands of the authorities to have you clapped into prison?”
“I have been in prison before and got out. I can stand it again—for the sake of a woman.”
“You will doubtless get out of the prison into which I shall put you, but it will be to go to the hangman, or to the headsman if you can prove your gentle blood.”
“What!”
“You forget that little transaction in England. You are a highway robber! I have evidence enough to convict you beyond doubt.”
“The French Government would never....”
“The French Government is angry enough over the loss of those papers, and the punishment for highway robbery is death,” he sneered.