"Well, captain," replied Don Luis, not without a certain touch of banter in his voice, "if this honorable gentleman suggested that you should release him on parole so that he might go and fetch your Coralie, I don't suppose you'd accept?" "No." "You haven't the least confidence in him, have you? And you're right. The honorable gentleman, mad though he may be, gave such proofs of mental superiority and balance, when he sent us trundling down the road to Mantes, that it would be dangerous to attach the least credit to his promises. The consequence is . . ." "Well?" "This, captain, that the honorable gentleman means to propose a bargain to you, which may be couched thus: 'You can have Coralie, but I'll keep the gold.'" "And then?" "And then? It would be a capital notion, if you were alone with the honorable gentleman. The bargain would soon be concluded. But I'm here . . . by Jupiter!" Patrice had drawn himself up. He stepped towards Don Luis and said, in a voice which became openly hostile: "I presume that you won't raise any opposition. It's a matter of a woman's life." "No doubt. But, on the other hand, it's a matter of three hundred million francs." "Then you refuse?" "Refuse? I should think so!" "You refuse when that woman is at her last gasp? You would rather she died? . . . Look here, you seem to forget that this is my affair, that . . . that . . ." The two men were standing close together. Don Luis retained that chaffing calmness, that air of knowing more than he chose to say, which irritated Patrice. At heart Patrice, while yielding to Don Luis' mastery, resented it and felt a certain embarrassment at accepting the services of a man with whose past he was so well acquainted. "Then you actually refuse?" he rapped out, clenching his fists. "Yes," said Don Luis, preserving his coolness. "Yes, Captain Belval, I refuse this bargain, which I consider absurd. Why, it's the confidence-trick! By Jingo! Three hundred millions! Give up a windfall like that? Never. But I haven't the least objection to leaving you alone with the honorable gentleman. That's what he wants, isn't it?" "Yes." "Well, talk it over between yourselves. Sign the compact. The honorable gentleman, who, for his part, has every confidence in his son, will tell you the whereabouts of the hiding-place; and you shall release your Coralie." "And you? What about you?" snarled Patrice, angrily. "I? I'm going to complete my little enquiry into the present and the past by revisiting the room where you nearly met your death. See you later, captain. And, whatever you do, insist on guarantees." Switching on his pocket-lamp, Don Luis entered the lodge and walked straight to the studio. Patrice saw the electric rays playing on the panels between the walled-up windows. He went back to where Siméon sat: "Now then," he said, in a voice of authority. "Be quick about it." "Are you sure he's not listening?" "Quite sure."