"
"If we fail--" began Chauvenet.
"You suggest a fruitful but unpleasant topic. If we fail we shall be
fortunate if we reach the hospitable shores of the Argentine for future
residence. Paris and Vienna would not know us again. If Winkelried
succeeds in Vienna and we lose here, where do we arrive?"
"We arrive quite where Mr. Armitage chooses to land us. He is a gentleman
of resources; he has money; he laughs cheerfully at misadventures; he has
had you watched by the shrewdest eyes in Europe,--and you are considered
a hard man to keep track of, my dear Durand. And not least important,--he
has to-night snatched away that little cablegram that was the signal to
Winkelried to go ahead. He is a very annoying and vexatious person, this
Armitage. Even Zmai, whose knife made him a terror in Servia, seems
unable to cope with him."
"And the fair daughter of the valley--"
"Pish! We are not discussing the young lady."
"I can understand how unpleasant the subject must be to you, my dear
Jules. What do you imagine _she_ knows of Monsieur Armitage? If he is
the man we think he is and a possible heir to a great throne it would be
impossible for her to marry him.
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