No one can, for long, be the associate of thieves without acquiring their cunning. To play eavesdropper is a common precaution on the part of thieves. Raife overheard the doctor talking to Denoir, and the words had a sinister sound in his ears. It was the doctor speaking. “You shall have your revenge all right. I will see to that.”
Denoir’s high-pitched voice responded. “Yes, doctor, that big brute of an Englishman hit me. Hit me with his fists. I would like to shoot him.” Raife rang a bell, and the doctor opened the door. There was surprise on the face of the ex-officer when Raife confronted them. To show surprise was not part of the doctor’s stock-in-trade. So, with urbanity, he greeted his guest. “Ah, Mr Vachelle! You are a late visitor. Come in. To what do I owe the honour?”
Rather curtly, Raife replied: “I must talk to you to-night, doctor. Something has occurred.”
“Does it concern Mr Denoir?”
“No. It does not concern him.”
“Very well, I bid you good-night, Mr Denoir,” said the doctor, turning to that gentleman.
Mr Denoir retired, bowing low to both the other men.
“Come in, Mr Vachelle, or, as I may call you in here, Sir Raife,” added the doctor.
Raife was not in the mood to be trifled with and snapped out: “I’m not so sure of that. I heard what you said to that fellow Denoir just now.”
“Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re” was the doctor’s motto in business, and unctuously he replied: “Ah! that was nothing. The fellow was in a rage. You thrashed him and, naturally, he doesn’t like it. I only said that to soothe him. He knows a good deal, and can be dangerous, you know. So I thought it best to soothe him. You quite understand, don’t you, Sir Raife?”