“Perhaps she thought Carmin Fanchet would do that, St. Pierre.”

“And I am ashamed to go to Carmin—­with this great lump over my eye, m’sieu.  And on top of that disgrace—­you insist that I pay the wager?”

“I do.”

St. Pierre’s face hardened.

“Oui, I am to pay.  I am to tell you all I know about that BETE NOIR—­Black Roger Audemard.  Is it not so?”

“That is the wager.”

“But after I have told you—­what then?  Do you recall that I gave you any other guarantee, M’sieu Carrigan?  Did I say I would let you go?  Did I promise I would not kill you and sink your body to the bottom of the river?  If I did, I can not remember.”

“Are you a beast, St. Pierre—­a murderer as well as—­”

“Stop!  Do not tell me again what you saw through the window, for it has nothing to do with this.  I am not a beast, but a man.  Had I been a beast, I should have killed you the first day I saw you in this cabin.  I am not threatening to kill you, and yet it may be necessary if you insist that I pay the wager.  You understand, m’sieu.  To refuse to pay a wager is a greater crime among my people than the killing of a man, if there is a good reason for the killing.  I am helpless.  I must pay, if you insist.  Before I pay it is fair that I give you warning.”

“You mean?”

“I mean nothing, as yet.  I can not say what it will be necessary for me to do, after you have heard what I know about Roger Audemard.  I am quite settled on a plan just now, m’sieu, but the plan might change at any moment.  I am only warning you that it is a great hazard, and that you are playing with a fire of which you know nothing, because it has not burned you yet.”

Carrigan seated himself slowly in a chair opposite St. Pierre, with the table between them.

“You are wasting time in attempting to frighten me,” he said.  “I shall insist on the payment of the wager, St Pierre.”

For a moment St. Pierre was clearly troubled.  Then his lips tightened, and he smiled grimly over the table at David.

“I am sorry, M’sieu David.  I like you.  You are a fighting man and no coward, and I should like to travel shoulder to shoulder with you in many things.  And such a thing might be, for you do not understand.  I tell you it would have been many times better for you had I whipped you out there, and it had been you—­and not me—­ to pay the wager!”

“It is Roger Audemard I am interested in, St. Pierre.  Why do you hesitate?”

“I?  Hesitate?  I am not hesitating, m’sieu.  I am giving you a chance.”  He leaned forward, his great arms bent on the table.  “And you insist, M’sieu David?”

“Yes, I insist.”

Slowly the fingers of St. Pierre’s hands closed into knotted fists, and he said in a low voice, “Then I will pay, m’sieu. I am Roger Audemard!”

XXIII