He was gone--scot free for us, but with his score to Lafleur well paid.

I swayed where I stood, to and fro: the pain was considerable, and things seemed to go round before my eyes; yet I turned to my companion, crying: "After him! He'll get off! I'm hit; I can't run!" The duke stood still, frowning; then he slowly dropped his smoking pistol into his pocket.

For a moment longer he stood, and a smile broadened on his face as he raised his eyes to me.
"Let him," he said briefly; and his glance rested on me for a moment in defiant significance.

And then, without another word, he turned on his heel.

He took no heed of Lafleur's dead body, that seemed to fondle the box, huddling it in a ghastly embrace, nor of me, who swayed and tottered and sank on the ground by the corpse.