"I will not interrupt you. Have I ever interrupted you?" "Yes!" "No!" "Yes!" "When?" "Always! Madame, Hadgi-Stavros has all his funds invested in the firm of Barley & Company." "With our firm?" "No. 31 Cavendish Square, London. Last Wednesday he dictated, in our presence, a business letter to Mr. Barley." "And you never told me before?" "You would never give me the opportunity." "But this is monstrous! Your conduct is inexplicable! We could have been at liberty six days ago! I will go straight to him; I will tell him our relations----" "And he will demand of you two or three hundred thousand francs! Believe me, Madame, the best way is to say nothing to him. Pay your ransom; make him give you a receipt, and in fifteen days send to him a statement, with the following note: 'Item, 100,000 francs paid, personally, by Mrs. Simons, our partner, as per receipt!' In this way you will get back your money, without the aid of the soldiers. Is it clear?" I raised my eyes and saw the pretty smile which broke over Mary-Ann's face as she saw through the plot. Mrs. Simons angrily shrugged her shoulders, and seemed moved only by ill-humor. "Truly," she said to me, "you are a wonderful man! You proposed to us an acrobatic escape when we had such simple means at our command! And you have known it since Wednesday morning! I will never pardon you for not having told me the first day." "But, Madame, will you not remember that I begged you to write to Monsieur, your brother, to send you a hundred and fifteen thousand francs?" "Why a hundred and fifteen?" "I mean to say a hundred thousand." "No! a hundred and fifteen. That is right! Are you sure that this Stavros will not keep us here when he has received the money?" "I will answer for it. The bandits are the only Greeks who never break their word. Do you not understand that if it happened once that they kept prisoners after having received the ransom, no one would ever pay one again?" "That is true! But what a queer German you are, not to have spoken sooner." "You always cut me short." "You ought to have spoken even then!" "But, Madame----" "Silence! Lead me to this detestable Stavros."