We require a succession of
deaths."
"We require three, to be explicit, not more or less. We should be
fortunate if the remaining two could be accomplished as easily as
Stroebel's."
"He was a beast. He is well dead."
"That depends on the way you look at it. They seem really to be mourning
the old beggar at Vienna. It is the way of a people. They like to be
ruled by a savage hand. The people, as you have heard me say before, are
fools."
The last speaker was a young man whom Armitage had never seen before;
he was a decided blond, with close-trimmed straw-colored beard and
slightly-curling hair. Opposite him, and facing the door, sat Chauvenet.
On the table between them were decanters and liqueur glasses.
"I am going to America at once," said Chauvenet, holding his filled glass
toward a brass lamp of an old type that hung from the ceiling.
"It is probably just as well," said the other. "There's work to do there.
We must not forget our more legitimate business in the midst of these
pleasant side issues."
"The field is easy. After our delightful continental capitals, where, as
you know, one is never quite sure of one's self, it is pleasant to
breathe the democratic airs of Washington," remarked Chauvenet.
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