But it is too late."
"Too late?"
"Doubtless, since by this time the authorities are in possession
of the interesting facts."
"I beg to differ from you."
"Do as you please," said Maurice, triumphantly. "I sent an
account of your former exploits both to my own government and to
the one which you so treacherously betrayed. One or the other
will not fail to reach."
"I am perfectly well aware of that," Beauvais smiled. He reached
into a pocket, and for a moment Maurice expected to see a pistol
come forth. But he was needlessly alarmed. Beauvais extracted
two envelopes from the pocket and sailed them through the
intervening space. They fell on the table. "Put not your trust
in hotel clerks," was the sententious observation. "At least,
till you have discovered that no one else employs them. I am
well served. The clerk was told to intercept your outgoing post;
and there is the evidence. Ten thousand crowns and a safe
conduct."
Maurice picked up the letters mechanically. They were his; the
stamps were not canceled, but the flaps were slit. He turned
them this way and that, bewildered. He was convinced that he
could in no way cope with this man of curious industries, this
man who seemed to have a key for every lock, and whom nothing
escaped.
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