d Beauvais, rising. He was still smiling.
"Do you know why I asked you here? For this very reason. Madame divined
you well. She said that you had a dash of what romanticists call valor,
but that you never saw an inch before your nose. I knew that you would
be at the archbishop's; I knew that you would follow me to this room.
Indeed, you might have suspected as much by the unusual arrangement of
the fixtures of the room. I placed that photograph there, trusting to
your rather acute eyesight.

"My memory seems to be better than yours. I knew you the first time
I saw you in Bleiborg. I was waiting only to see how much you had
remembered. I am not Colonel Beauvais; I am not Urquijo; I am the last
of a noble Austrian house, in exile, but on the eve of recall. Your
knowledge would, of course, be disastrous to my ambitions. That is why
I wanted to find out how much you know. You know too much, too much by
half; and since you have walked into the lion's den, you shall never
leave it alive." With this he sprang to the wall and tore down the
rapiers, one of which he flung at Maurice's feet.

Maurice felt the hand of paralysis on his nerves. He looked at the
rapier, then at Beauvais, dazed and incapable of movement. It had been
so sudden.

"And when they find you in some alley in the lower town they will put
it down to thieves. You are young and thoughtless," Beauvais went on
banteringly. "A little discretion and you might have gone with a whole
skin. We never forget a woman's face, and I knew that you would not
forget hers. Don't trouble yourself about leaping through the windows;
the fall will kill you less effectually than I shall."

Maurice pulled himself together. The prospect of death brought back
lucidity of mind. He at once saw the hopelessness of his position. He
cursed his lack of forethought. He became pale and furious, but his
head cleared. His life hung in the balance. He now translated Beauvais's
smile.

"So you wish to add another to the list?" he said.

"To shield one crime, a man must commit many others. O, this will not be
murder. It will be a duel, in which you will have no chance. Pick up the
sword, if only for form's sake." Beauvais caught the wrist thong of the
rapier between his teeth and rapidly divested himself of his jacket and
saber straps. With his back toward the door, he rolled up his sleeve and
discovered a formidable forearm. He tried the blade and thrust several
times into the air.

"What