ldom gave such short answers as
this.

"What is the matter?" asked the doctor. "Your greeting is quite
funereal. Are you not well?"

"I am merely preoccupied, and that is excusable on the eve of the battle
we are about to fight," returned Mascarin.

He only, however, told a portion of the truth; for there was more in
the background, which he did not wish to confide to his friend. Toto
Chupin's revolt had disquieted him. Let there be but a single flaw in
the axletree, and one day it will snap in twain; and Mascarin wanted to
eliminate this flaw.

"Pooh!" remarked the doctor, playing with his locket, "we shall succeed.
What have we to fear, after all,--opposition on Paul's part?"

"Paul may resent a little," answered Mascarin disdainfully; "but I have
decided that he shall be present at our meeting of to-day. It will be
a stormy one, so be prepared. We might give him his medicine in minims,
but I prefer the whole dose at once."

"The deuce you do! Suppose he should be frightened, and make off with
our secret."

"He won't make off," replied Mascarin in a tone which froze his
listener's blood. "He can't escape from us any more than the cockchafer
can from the string that a child has fastened to it. Do you not
understand weak natures like his? He is the glove, I the strong hand
beneath it."

The doctor did not argue this point, but merely murmured,--

"Let us hope that it is so."

"Should we have any opposition," resumed Mascarin, "it will come from
Catenac. I may be able to force him into co-operation with us, but his
heart will not be in the enterprise."

"Do you propose to bring Catenac into this affair?" asked Hortebise in
great surprise.

"Assuredly."

"Why have you changed your plan?"

"Simply because I have recognized the fact that, if we dispensed with
his services, we should be entirely at the mercy of a shrewd man of
business, because----"

He broke off, listened for a moment, and then said,--

"Hush! I can hear his footstep."

A dry cough was heard outside, and in another moment Catenac entered the
room.

Nature, or profound dissimulation, had gifted Catenac with an exterior
which made every one, when first introduced to him, exclaim, "This is an
honest and trustworthy man." Catenac always looked his clients boldly in
the face. His voice was pleasant, and had a certain ring of joviality
in it, and his manner was one of those easy ones which always insure
popularity. He was looked upon as