We are among friends, as you see.
It is only ourselves." "Well," replied the Marquis, standing upright and fingering the snuff-box which had been given to his grandfather by the Great Louis.
"Well, my friends, our invaluable ally, Dormer Colville, has gone to England.

There is a ray of hope.

That is all I can tell you." He looked round, smiled on his audience, and then proceeded to tell them more, after the manner of any Frenchman.
"What," he whispered, "if an unscrupulous republican government had got scent of our glorious discovery! What if, panic-stricken, they threw all vestige of honour to the wind and decided to kidnap an innocent man and send him to the Iceland fisheries, where so many lives are lost every winter; with what hopes in their republican hearts, I leave to your imagination.

What if--let us say it for once--Monsieur de Bourbon should prove a match for them?
Alert, hardy, full of resource, a skilled sailor, he takes his life in his hand with the daring audacity of royal blood and effects his escape to England.

I tell you nothing--" He held up his hands as if to stay their clamouring voices, and nodded his head triumphantly toward Albert de Chantonnay, who stood near a lamp fingering his martial whisker of the left side with the air of one who would pause at naught.
"I tell you nothing.