Will you promise me this,--that you will be careful ?" "Careful ?" I repeated.

"I don't quite understand; but I'll promise all the same." She took hold of the lapels of my coat as though to pull me down a little towards her.

I felt my heart beat quickly, for the deep blue light was in her eyes.
"Ah, Capitaine Rotherby," she said, "you do not understand! This man Louis--he is not only what he seems! I think that he took you to the Cafe des Deux Epingles that night with a purpose.

He thinks, perhaps, that you are in his power, eh, because you did fight with the other man and hurt him badly?
And Louis knows!" "Please go on," I said.
"I want you to be careful," she said.

"If he asks you to do anything for him, be sure that it is something which you ought to do,--which you may do honorably! You see, Capitaine Rotherby," she went on, "Louis and his friends are not men like you.