' said Ravengar, summoning his powers of self-control. 'But
the common outcry against murder is apt to be very inconvenient for the
person who chooses, as you put it, to end one incarnation and begin
another. Has it not struck you, Owen, that inquiries would be made for
me, that my death would be certain to be discovered, and that ultimately
you would suffer the penalty?'

'My arrangements for the future are far more complete than yours could
have been in regard to me,' Hugo answered smoothly. 'You betrayed some
clumsiness. I shall profit by your mistakes. No one will see you go into
the Safe Deposit except myself and a man whom I can trust. No one at all
except myself will see you go into the vault. I can manage the operation
alone. A little chloroform will quieten you for a time. The vault once
closed will not be opened during my lifetime, unless at four o'clock
to-morrow night I hear you knocking on the door. Of course, inquiries
will be made, but they will be futile. People often simply disappear.
You will simply disappear.'

The clock struck six.

'And your conscience?' Ravengar muttered.

'It's soon well under control. Besides, I shall be doing the human race,
and especially the investing part of the human race, a very good turn.'

Then Ravengar approached Hugo, and, Hugo rising to meet him, their faces
almost touched in the middle of the great room.

'You called me a cur,' he said. 'Yet perhaps I am not such a cur after
all. You have beaten me. You mean to finish me; I can see it in your
face. Well, you will regret it more than I shall. Do you know I have
often wished to die? You are right in saying that there is no reason why
I should live. I am only a curse to the world. But you are wrong to
scorn me when you kill me. You ought to pity me. Did I choose my
temperament, my individuality? As I am, so I was born, and from his
character no man can escape.'

And he sat down, and Hugo sat down.

'When is it to be?' Ravengar questioned.

'In a few minutes,' said Hugo impassively, feeding his mortal
resentment on the memory of those hours when he himself had waited for
death in the vault.

'Then I shall have time to ask you how you came to know that Camilla
Payne, or rather Camilla Tudor, is alive.'

'She is not alive,' Hugo explained. 'The suggestion contained in my
decoy letter was a pure invention in order to entice you. As you tempted
me into the vault, so I tempted you here on your way to the vault.'