Presently Keller Bey passed into an inner room, which, from the gilding upon the door and the allegorical figures above holding swords of justice and ill-adjusted balances, I took to be a court room. It was in fact the mayoral parlour, and the comfortable office coat and even the dressing-gown of the late occupant still hung on the pegs behind the door. Keller Bey gave an order and I was immediately brought in and laid upon a wide and springy sofa which furnished one whole side of the apartment. I noticed the device of the crossed red and black flags had been removed from his tie, and was now worn upon the lapel of his coat like a decoration. As soon as the room was clear he came over and sat down beside me. At sight of me his grim face softened almost as it was wont to do when Linn or Alida spoke to him. "All this may seem very strange to you," he said, with a faint feeling of apology in his voice, "you who have only seen me going about the house like a tame cat. But since I was raised to high place and consideration in the Internationale, the old fighting spirit rose within me. I could not deny the appeal of my brothers to stand by them, and so you find me here, at the head of the Commune of Aramon--at least till the will of the voters is ascertained. The men who are with me are honest fellows, but, so far as I see, quite incapable of leadership. I do not believe that the vote will strip me of any authority or responsibility." I thought that he was talking straight on without stopping in order to escape the question which he must have seen on my lips. "And your duty to Linn and Alida?" I demanded abruptly. I could see him flush and pale. "Personal and private interests must give way at such times," he answered firmly enough, but his tones did not carry conviction, not even, I think, to himself. "Besides," he added, after a pause, "Linn knew that it would have to come. I dare not refuse a call of duty because of the danger." "It is lucky for Linn and Alida," I said with the studied cruelty only attained by boys, "that they have friends who put them before all public duties." "Sir," said Keller Bey, his cheek blanching to a kind of cadaveric rigidity, so great was the intensity of his anger, "I do not allow anyone to call my actions into question." "Call in your soldiers, Monsieur of the Internationale," I said tauntingly, "you can soon get even with me. There are many walls between here and the cottage in my father's garden. My shooting will not have the _eclat_ of the assassination of the Paris generals, but it will come as blithe news for the three left wondering in the garden of Gobelet." I spoke like a bad, spiteful boy, conscious of a power to wound to the quick and thoroughly enjoying my triumph. Keller Bey did not answer directly to my railings. He felt instinctively that he could not meet me along these lines. "How did you come here?" he demanded abruptly, "and why in the coat of a Garde Nationale?"