' He smiled drily at this description of his
prisoner. 'The Emperor knows how to reward his friends,' he added,
'and also how to punish his enemies.'
All this time he had held his hand in his bosom, and now he drew it out
so far as to show the brass gleam of a pistol butt.
'It is no use,' said he, in answer to some look in the other's eye.
'You stay in the hut, alive or dead.'
Lesage put his hands to his face and began to cry with loud, helpless
sobbings.
'Why, you have been worse than any of us, Charles,' he moaned. 'It was
you who told Toussac to kill the man from Bow Street, and it was you
also who set fire to the house in the Rue Basse de la Rampart. And now
you turn on us!'
'I did that because I wished to be the one to throw light upon it all--and
at the proper moment.'
'That is very fine, Charles, but what will be thought about that when I
make it all public in my own defence? How can you explain all that to
your Emperor? There is still time to prevent my telling all that I know
about you.'
'Well, really, I think that you are right, my friend,' said the other,
drawing out his pistol and cocking it.
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