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 they were to—to do away with me, nothing could prevent him."

"They will try to tamper with him," the doctor suggested, thoughtfully.

"It is very possible," Charles Gould said, very low, as if speaking to himself, and still gazing at the sketch of the San Tomé gorge upon the wall. "Yes, I expect they will try that." Charles Gould looked for the first time at the doctor. "It would give me time," he added.

"Exactly," said Dr. Monygham, suppressing his excitement. "Especially if Don Pépé" behaves diplomatically. Why shouldn't he give them some hope of success? Eh? Otherwise you wouldn't gain so much time. Couldn't he be instructed to—"

Charles Gould, looking at the doctor steadily, shook his head, but the doctor continued, with a certain amount of fire:

"Yes, to enter into negotiations for the surrender of the mine. It is a good notion. You would mature your plan. Of course I don't ask what it is. I don't want to know. I would refuse to listen to you if you tried to tell me. I am not fit for confidences."

"What nonsense!" muttered Charles Gould, with displeasure.

He disapproved of the doctor's sensitiveness about that far-off episode of his life. So much memory shocked Charles Gould. It was like morbidness. And again he shook his head. He refused to tamper with the open rectitude of Don Pépé's conduct both from taste and from policy. Instructions would have to be either verbal or in writing. In either case they