Reflecting profoundly, he could come to no other conclusion than that he ought to shun the dangerous traitress.
As he lifted his head, less troubled after arriving at this resolution, he was not sorry to see that Clemenceau had silently entered the room.
"Oh, is it you, my dear master ?" he exclaimed.
It was not easy on that placid brow to read whether he knew of Cesarine's return or not.
"Well, are you satisfied with your test this morning ?" inquired he.
"Have you succeeded with the bullets of the new shape ?" "I believe so," answered Antonino, "for the modifications which you suggested, improved it in every point they dealt with.

They go forth clean and the windage is much reduced." "Is the range improved ?" "At fourteen hundred metres I put two elongated balls into an oak so deeply that I could not dig them out with my knife.

They struck very closely to one another.

It is a hundred metres greater distance.
Inserting the bullets by the mass of twenty-five and firing the two took four seconds.

I was less careful about marking where the others struck, and one that I discharged on my return near the house broke and went badly askew.