Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/229

 "You seem to suggest that you could have killed him," he said with half a sneer.

"His own second said as much to me, and offered to bear witness to the fact that he owed his life to my forbearance."

"A very tactful forbearance. And why did you spare him? From what I hear, there is little love lost between you—at least, in the common sense of the term," he added drily.

"I had my reasons, and they are my own, if you please. But now will you tell me the reason for your conduct?"

"I do not consider it safe for you to be any longer at large."

The answer was given deliberately, and after a pause. It showed that his intention was to imprison me; but I would not let him see the unpleasant effect of the decision. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

"And your reasons?" I asked.

"I am not accustomed to discuss reasons with prisoners."

"Yet you will have to state them in my case. Englishmen can't be packed away like herrings in a barrel to suit even your convenience."

"You are no Englishman, Count Benderoff."

"On the contrary, I am a British subject, General Kolfort, and am resolved to claim my rights as one."

He waved the words aside as though they were of no account.

"I warned you when you first came here"

"When you lured me here, you mean," I corrected.

"That you would have to choose in which character I was to deal with you. Had you chosen then to stand