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Updated: June 28, 2025
"'The stakes? put in Crawfurd, feebly, for, shaken as he was, he could still grasp at the definite idea included in the last-named alternative. Sport and a wager now he understood. "'The stakes? repeated Balencourt. 'Well, they are hardly of a nature that either Mr. Estes or myself can intrust them to the keeping of a third party. But rest assured that the loser will pay; it is a debt of honor.
There, shining like a star through the close curtain of green that veiled 'The Thimble, was the projecting end of a highly polished tube of steel. And even as I gazed a man's face peered out as though in the act of sighting Aram Balencourt! "Then I understood. The tube was the means of projecting some enormously powerful heat-beam whose nature must be akin to that of the so-called X-ray.
"One thing was plain the danger of remaining longer in the city. There are so many things that may happen in a crowd, and especially if our friend Balencourt formed part of that unknown quantity. There is always a chance of a chimney-pot tumbling about one's ears or of being run down by some reckless chauffeur. And who is to know the truth?
'Then the science of assassination is a lost art, he said, tentatively. "'Oh, I did not say that, replied Balencourt, carelessly. 'There are other ways better ones. "'You mean beyond the risk of detection? "'Perfectly. "'Eliminating the toxic poisons of all kinds? "'If you like. "'I doubt it. said Crawfurd, with a little hesitation.
"Up to this moment I had kept silence, but now I must make my one try. 'He is but a boy, I said, leaning my elbows on the table and seeking to plumb the soul-depths in the cold, gray eyes of the man who sat opposite to me. But Balencourt only laughed amusedly. "'Then he should not assume a man's "'Will you come now, Cousin Esper? interrupted Estes.
It broke open in my pocket and it contained this. She held out to us the third red button. That was decent of Balencourt to have given the last warning. "There is only one possible hypothesis to account for the catastrophe. Balencourt was dealing with a terrible force, whose nature was but partially understood, even by science.
You continued to convalesce and I kept on thinking. "This impersonal opposition well, there had been something of the same sort once or twice before. You remember, in particular, the affair of the private letter-box. A devilish intelligence had been at work there, and some day, as I told you, the mystery would be cleared up. "Then did we ever know who Mr. Aram Balencourt really was?
If not by the recalcitrant himself, then by the agent of the "Forty" through whom the summons comes. That makes it clear, doesn't it Balencourt and his debt of honor? "'When did you know about him, I mean? "'Here is the second button. Balencourt slipped it into my hand just before we went out to dinner to-night. "'It is incredible. Balencourt is a man and you are but a boy.
"Mother, do you hear them " appealed Isobel, almost in tears. Isobel had been building for herself a rosy dream; she had even, casually, told a few of the girls at school that "in June I'm going abroad with my godmother, Mrs. Cornelius Drinkwater you know her mother was a second cousin to the Marquis of Balencourt and the family has a beautiful château near Nice.
'For God's sake, fellows he began, but Balencourt stopped him with a gesture. "'This is a private matter between Mr. Estes and myself, as he knows full well. So far as you and Mr. Indiman are concerned, call it what you like a duel, or, better yet, a sporting proposition.
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