What can it help that I should trouble you with the matter until
at the same time I can offer you some way out?"
"The Frenchman has a throat, and throats can be slit," said the
downright King.
"So they can; and men can be hanged for slitting them," returned
Sir Lewis, and thereafter resumed and elaborated his first
argument, using now such forceful logic and obvious sincerity
that Sir Walter was convinced. He was no less convinced, too, of
the peril in which he stood. He plied those wits of his, which
had rarely failed him in an extremity. Manourie was the
difficulty. But in his time he had known many of these agents
who, without sentimental interest and purely for the sake of
gold, were ready to play such parts; and never yet had he known
one who was not to be corrupted. So that evening he desired
Manourie's company in the room above stairs that had been set
apart for Sir Walter's use. Facing him across the table at which
both were seated, Sir Walter thrust his clenched fist upon the
board, and, suddenly opening it, dazzled the Frenchman's beady
eyes with the jewel sparkling in his palm.
"Tell me, Manourie, are you paid as much as that to betray me?"
Manourie paled a little under his tan.
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