At this latter place it was my great pleasure to smash you in the
head with a boiling-pot on a certain evening in March."
The man scowled and ejaculated an oath with so much venom that Armitage
laughed.
"Your conspirators are engaged upon a succession of murders, and
when they have removed the last obstacle they will establish a new
Emperor-king in Vienna and you will receive a substantial reward for
what you have done--"
The blood suffused the man's dark face, and he half rose, a great roar of
angry denial breaking from him.
"That will do. You tried to kill me on the _King Edward_; you tried your
knife on me again down there in Judge Claiborne's garden; and you came up
here tonight with a plan to kill my man and then take your time to me.
Give me the mail, Oscar."
He opened the letters which Oscar had brought and scanned several that
bore a Paris postmark, and when he had pondered their contents a moment
he laughed and jumped from the table. He brought a portfolio from his
bedroom and sat down to write.
"Don't shoot the gentleman as long as he is quiet. You may even give him
a glass of whisky to soothe his feelings.
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