Then Ansell, having carefully closed the window, went back to the table and, bending towards his friend, said:
"Listen. I"m going to tell you something important. I"ve got a good thing on for us both to-night. You know the Baron"s out at Neuilly?
Well, to-night, it quite----"
"Hush, Ralph! Madame----" his companion cried, glancing at Jean, apprehensively.
"Oh, she may just as well know the truth at first as at last," laughed Ansell roughly. Then, turning to his wife, he exclaimed, with a sinister grin: "Perhaps, Jean, you may wonder how we live--how I have got my money in the past. Well, I may as well tell you, for one day you will surely discover our secret. We are burglars."
The girl started, staring blankly at her husband, and uttered a low scream.
"Burglars!" she gasped, astounded.
"Yes. And now you know the truth, take care that you never blab out a word to anyone, or, by Heaven, it will be the worse for you! If you say a word," he added, fiercely, with knit brows and glaring eyes, "if you let drop a hint to anybody, I"ll break every bone in your body."
"Ralph!" she cried, starting up in horror. "Have you taken leave of your senses?"
"Enough!" protested Adolphe, angrily. "I won"t stand by and hear such threats, Ralph."
"What, pray, is it to do with you?" asked Ansell, fiercely. "She"s my wife, and I can speak to her. I can tell her what home-truths I like without your interference."
"I should have deemed it more prudent to have said nothing, Ralph,"
answered the other quietly.
Though Carlier was dressed also in a striped jacket and waistcoat and black trousers, he wore no collar, and looked even a greater blackguard than his friend.
His eyes met Jean"s, and in them he saw an expression of silent thanks for taking her part.
Then she turned and, covering her face with her hands, burst into bitter, blinding tears, and disappeared into the little kitchen.
"Sit down," Ansell urged. "Now that little fool has gone, we can talk."
"You are a perfect idiot," declared the other, in disgust.
"That"s my affair. She"ll have to be brought to her senses and know the truth."
"It has upset her."
"I can"t help that," he laughed. "She must get over it. If she wants fine dresses and a good time she must help us. And I mean that she shall before long. Look at Tavernier"s wife."
"She is of a different type to madame."
"Rubbish!" he laughed. "Wait and see what I"ll do. She"ll be a valuable a.s.set to us before long."
Adolphe leaned his elbows upon the table and shrugged his shoulders.
"_Bien!_" he said. "Let me hear the proposition."
"It is quite simple," the young adventurer said. "I know the interior of the Baron"s house. There is a lot of good stuff there--some jewellery, too, and even enough table silver to make the job worth while. In his safe he keeps a lot of papers. If we could only get them they would fetch something in certain quarters--enough to make us both rich; but the worst of it is that we left our jet in London, and we cannot get it without." And he took a caporal from the packet before him and slowly lit it. Then he resumed, saying: "Now, I propose that we leave the safe out of the question, and go for the plate in the _salle-a-manger_. We have no tools for a really artistic job, so we must be content this time with the Baron"s embroideries. His papers may come later--at least, that"s my project. I"ve been out at Neuilly all day, and have had a good look around, and decided on the way we shall get in. It is perfectly easy--all save the watchdog. But a bit of doctored meat will do the trick. I got a little dose for him from old Pere Lebrun on my way home,"
and from his pocket he produced a small bottle.
"Is the Baron at home?" asked his accomplice, to whom, of course, Ansell had never spoken about the failure of his plot for blackmail.
"Of course," was the reply. "But what does that matter? He"ll be sound asleep, and to-morrow we shall be a couple of thousand francs the richer. It is childishly easy, my dear friend, I a.s.sure you."
"And if we meet the Baron, who, if all I hear be true, is an extremely shrewd person, what shall we do?"
"Well, if we meet anybody, we must act as we have always acted."
"Shoot, eh?"
Ansell nodded and grinned.
"We had bad luck in London, remember," said "The Eel."
"Yes; but it is easy out at Neuilly," the other declared. "I"ve been in the _salle-a-manger_, remember. Every bit of plate in use is solid silver. Much of it is kept in drawers in the room. Besides, there were a lot of knick-knacks about in the large _salon_. Levy will buy them in a moment. We are on a soft thing, I can a.s.sure you. I was an a.s.s not to have thought of it long ago. Once the dog is silenced the rest is quite easy."
Carlier, who had only two francs in his pocket, reflected deeply. He was silent for fully three minutes, while his companion watched his face narrowly.
"When do you propose starting?"
"Say at eleven. We"ll get your things from your place, and I"ll take my flash-lamp, keys, and a few other necessaries."
"No, you"ll not, Ralph!" cried Jean, as she rushed out from the kitchen, where behind the half-closed door she had been listening to the plot.
"Shut up, girl, will you?" her husband commanded roughly. "We want no woman"s advice in our business."
And rising from his chair, he unlocked the drawer in the movable cupboard wherein he kept certain of his private belongings, and took therefrom a serviceable-looking revolver, which he examined and saw was fully loaded.
He also drew forth some skeleton keys, a burglar"s jemmy in two sections, a pair of india-rubber gloves, a small, thin saw, and an electric pocket-lamp, all of which he carefully stowed away in his pockets.
The contents of that drawer were a startling revelation to Jean. He had always kept it locked, and she had often wondered what it contained.
Now that she knew she stood staggered.
She looked in horror at the revolver he held in his hand, and then with a sudden movement she flung herself upon him and grasped his arms, appealing to him for the sake of her love to desist from such an adventure.
Quick and pa.s.sionate came the words, the full, fervent appeal of a woman deeply and honestly in love. But he heeded not either her tears or her words, and only cast her from him with a rough malediction, declaring her to be an enc.u.mbrance.
"But think!" she cried. "Now that I know what you are I am in deadly fear that--that one day they may come, Ralph, and take you away from me."
And she stood pale-faced and trembling before him.
"Ah, never fear, my girl," replied her husband. "They"ll never have me.
They"ve tried a good many times, haven"t they Adolphe?" and he laughed defiantly. "The police! Zut! I do not fear them!" and he snapped his thin, long fingers in contempt.
"But one day, dear--one day they may be successful. And--and what should I do?"
"Do?" he asked. "Well, if I were put away I suppose you"d have to do as a good many other women have done."