"Do you think he can escape me?" cried Giacinto, his face distorted with a spasm of hatred. "Not even if he comes as the devil, his brother. Why we are both Sicilians from Catania. I remember him when he walked barefoot recruiting victims for the gambling houses. Later on he entered the novitiate of a monastery. Then, I witnessed his initiation as spy--under the direction--well in reality, in the employ of Queen Caroline. O he is an adept, a born spy and happy only when exercising his profession. He was Fouché's most dangerous agent and now performs the same office to Lecazes. But to every man his hour! There are many accounts pending between Volpetti and me! First, my brother Raphael's long imprisonment; secondly, the ill treatment of Grazia, that unfortunate girl; thirdly, the splendid Romeldi's death on the gibbet; fourthly, the conspiracy of the 19th of August. Why has this mission been assigned me? Because the Knights know well that Volpetti will not escape me." "Contain yourself" said the other. "To accomplish your purpose, calmness is essential." "Fear nothing," answered Giacinto, "I shall seem ice." "Does Volpetti know you by sight?" "As well as he does his own shirt, and his claws must have fastened into me at Trieste, if the Knights had not protected me. Set a thief to catch a thief. But here in England he and I are man to man." "Even in England spies are aided by other spies. Change your tactics, Giacinto. The devil! Lecazes snaps his fingers at scruples. The League must learn that the enemy is full of insidious perfidy. We no longer fight on the open as in the times of Napoleon. But the duel between Revolution and Reaction is raging none the less fiercely. The hour is ripe for blows and are we, the Knights of Liberty, to content ourselves with Platonic phrases? Are we not to wreak vengeance at last? We are so numerous as scarcely to know one another and yet so little is accomplished. 'Tis a competent leader that we need." "Platonism is dead," cried Giacinto. "Our business is to grapple with the police. Volpetti's fate will soon be a warning to Lecazes and those who are his masters. Every English Carbonaro will soon see that events are at last shaping themselves--" "What do you know?" eagerly demanded the other. "I scent the critical moment approaching. I read men's thoughts upon their foreheads. My friend, societies do much, but at times one man arises who by a swift stroke accomplishes what societies are only meditating." "You assume the air of a prophet." "Well, time will tell. Now to our work. Volpetti will soon arrive, either alone or with a companion. He is to embark from Dover. When he reaches this inn, you and I shall enter his room and dispatch him before he has time to say 'Amen.' The Polipheme awaits us in the harbor. The captain is our brother and confederate. I trust Volpetti will come alone for so he will fall to me; but if he be accompanied, both of us shall be implicated."