d I doubted his meaning no more, but
determined to have the whole mystery, then so faintly sketched, laid
bare before me.

"If you are not playing the fool, Hall," said I, "and if you are
sincere in wishing me to do something which you say is a favour to you,
you must be more explicit. In the first place, how did you get this
absurd notion that you are going to die into your head? Secondly, what
is the nature of the obligation you wish to put upon me? It is quite
clear that I can't accept a trust about which I know nothing, and I
think that for undiluted vagueness your words deserve a medal. Let us
begin at the beginning, which is a very good place to begin at. Now,
why should you, who are going to Paris, as far as I know, simply as a
common sightseer, have any reason to fear some mysterious calamity in a
city where you don't know a soul?"

He laughed softly, looking out for a moment on the sunless fields, but
his eyes flashed lights when he answered me, and I saw that he clenched
his hands so that the nails pierced the flesh.

"Why am I going to Paris without aim, do you say? Without aim--I, who
have waited years for the work I believe that I shall accomplish
to-night--why am I going to Paris? Ha! I will tell you: I am going to
Paris to meet one who, before another year has gone, will be wanted by
every Government in Europe; who, if I do not put my hand upon his
throat in the midst of his foul work, will make graves as thick as
pines in the wood there before you know another month; one who is mad
and who is sane, one who, if he knew my purpose, would crush me as I
crush this paper; one who has everything that life can give and seeks
more, a man who has set his face against humanity, and who will make
war on the nations, who has money and men, who can command and be
obeyed in ten cities, against whom the police might as well hope to
fight as against the white wall of the South Sea; a man of purpose so
deadly that the wisest in crime would not think of it--a man, in short,
who is the product of culminating vice--him I am going to meet in this
Paris where I go without aim--without aim, ha!"

"And you mean to run him down?" I asked, as his voice sank to a hoarse
whisper, and the drops stood as beads on his brow; "what interest have
you in him?"

"At the moment none; but in a month the interest of money. As sure as
you and I talk of it now, there will be fifty thousand pounds offered
for knowledge of him before Decemb