is is a time," said the count, addressing me, "at which we must sink
all divisions. We shall find ample time to quarrel when the work is
done. In the meantime the work lies before us, and no good Italian can
hang back from it."

"We shall do nothing but quarrel," Ruffiano protested. "We shall be at
daggers drawn among ourselves."

"Leave that to me," said the count, "and do you do my bidding."

After this there was no more question, and Quixote set off, taking his
brigand of a companion with him. The count paced the room in a sort of
silent fury for a while, but he was easily tired, and after two or three
minutes of this violent exercise he dropped, pale and panting, into an
arm-chair, and wiped the thick beads of perspiration from his forehead.

"There is no doubt about the news," he said then; "and even if it were
not true to-day, it would be true to-morrow or the day after."

I pointed out to him that its very likelihood should make us resolve
that our evidence was perfect before we acted on it.

"Yes, yes," he cried, with an angry impatience; "but we must be ready
for action, and I propose no more. There is just one thing in respect
to which I have not yet taken you into confidence. I have had an
opportunity offered me of the purchase of a stock of arms. They were
made in Birmingham, at the order of one of the South American republics
which fell into bankruptcy just as the order was fulfilled. They are to
be had at a very low price, and I am inclined to buy them. I ask your
judgment on this matter on two grounds, Captain Fyffe. To begin with, it
is twenty years since I knew the world, and the fashion of arms has so
changed during that time that I am a judge no longer. I shall want you
to decide on the quality of the weapons." I nodded assent to this, and
he went on. "The second reason is much more personal to yourself. The
cause is poor, but my daughter, in the course of a few days, will have
in her own hands a large sum of money inherited from her mother, and
increased by interest through her long minority. In round figures she
will receive something like forty thousand pounds. She proposes to offer
that sum to her father's country. You ought to know of that."

I did not see what concern this was of mine, and I said so. Violet's
fortune, so far as I was concerned, was entirely at her own disposal.
I felt this so strongly that I did not dare to express myself quite
unreservedly, lest I might seem guilty of a p