En, garde, Messieurs! And if my hand is hard,   Remember I've been at will;
  I am a impatient, and 'tis ill
To cross a hungry dog. Messieurs, en garde.
—W. Lindsey.
 
"Monsieur Chauvenet!"
 
Armitage uncovered smilingly. Chauvenet stared mutely as Armitage paused with his back to the Claiborne gate. Chauvenet was dressed with his usual care, and wore the latest in the lapel of his top-coat. He struck the ground with his stick, his look of passed, and he smiled pleasantly as he returned Armitage's salutation.
 
"My dear Armitage!" he murmured.
 
"I didn't go to Mexico after all, my good Chauvenet. The place is full of fevers; I couldn't take the risk."
 
"He is indeed a wise man who safeguards his health," replied the other.
 
"You are quite right. And when one has had many narrow escapes, one may be excused for exercising rather particular care. Do you not find it so?" mocked Armitage.
 
"My dear fellow, my life is one long fight against . Danger, excitement, the hazard of my precious life—such pleasures of late have been denied me."
 
"But you are young and of spirit, Monsieur. It would be quite surprising if some adventure did not overtake you before the silver gets in your hair."
 
"Ah! I assure you the interests me; but I must trouble you to let me pass," continued Chauvenet, in the same tone. "I shall quite forget that I set out to make a call if I linger longer in your charming society."
 
"But I must ask you to delay your call for the present. I shall greatly value your company down the road a little way. It is a favor, and you are a man of courtesy."
 
Chauvenet twisted his mustache reflectively. His mind had been busy seeking means of turning the meeting to his own advantage. He had met Armitage at quite the least imaginable spot in the world for an encounter between them; and he was not a man who enjoyed surprises. He had taken care that the exposure of Armitage at Washington should be telegraphed to every part of the country, and put upon the cables. He had expected Armitage to leave Washington, but he had no idea that he would turn up at a fashionable resort greatly by Washingtonians and only a comparatively short distance from the capital. He was at a great disadvantage in not knowing Armitage's plans and strategy; his own mind was cunning, and his reasoning powers traversed lines. He was thus to similar mental processes to other people; and directness he did not understand at all. He had underrated Armitage's courage and daring; he wished to make no further mistakes, and he walked back toward the hotel with apparent good grace. Armitage now in a very different key, and the change Chauvenet, for he much affected raillery, and his companion's sterner tones disconcerted him.
 
"I take this opportunity to give you a solemn warning, Monsieur Jules Chauvenet, Rambaud, and render you a greater service than you know. You have undertaken a deep and dangerous game—it is spectacular—it is picturesque—it is immense! It is so stupendous that the taking of a few lives seems trifling in comparison with the end to be . Now look about you for a moment, Monsieur Jules Chauvenet! In this mountain air a man may grow very and see matters very clearly. London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna—they are a long way off, and the things they stand for lose their when a man sits among these American mountains and reflects upon the pettiness and of man's common ambitions."
 
"Is this exordium or , my dear fellow?"
 
"It is both," replied Armitage , and Chauvenet was sorry he had spoken, for Armitage stopped short in a lonely stretch of the highway and continued in a disagreeable, tone:
 
"I ran away from Washington after you told that story at Claiborne's supper-table, not because I was afraid of your , but because I wanted to watch your plans a little in security. The only man who could have helped me immediately was Senator Sanderson, and I knew that he was in Montana."
 
Chauvenet smiled with a return of assurance.
 
"Of course. The hour was chosen well!"
 
"More wisely, in fact, than your choice of that big assassin of yours. He's a clumsy fellow, with more than brains. I had no trouble in shaking him off in Boston, where you probably advised him I should be taking the Montreal express."
 
Chauvenet blinked. This was what he had told Zmai to expect. He shifted from one foot to another, and wondered just how he was to escape from Armitage. He had gone to St............