The Outlaws of the Air | Page 4

eyes, which before now
he had seen grow almost black with passion, looked at him inquiringly.
And that was all.
"That is news indeed," she said. "It must be something very important
that takes Monsieur Max away from the scene of action at such a
critical time as this."
"Yes," said Renault coldly, and with an almost imperceptible
contraction of the brows, "it is important; so important, in fact, that I
don't think I am exaggerating when I say that if I had not come back
to-night, instead of to-morrow, and had given that fellow twelve hours
more grace, the fate of the whole world would have been changed."
"What! the fate of the world?" said she half incredulously, while the
others ceased their conversation and turned to listen to this strange

passage of words.
"Yes," said Max, slightly raising his tone till it had a note of triumph in
it, and at the same time bringing his hand down on hers, which was
resting on the arm of her chair. The quick blood came to her cheeks and
a flash of anger to her eyes, and she made an effort to withdraw it, but
he held it fast, and, before she could speak, went on-
"Yes, Lea, if the venture that I am going to undertake turns out a
success, I shall hold the fate of human society in my hand, just as I hold
this pretty little hand of yours, only in a somewhat rougher grip, and
then-"
"And then, Monsieur Max," interrupted the girl, snatching her hand
away as the pressure of his relaxed for a moment. "I suppose you will
have what you have not got now, the right to take what you want by the
universal law of might."
"Yes," he said, with another laugh, a somewhat more pleasant one this
time. "And as I have the power; so will I use it, whether in love or war.
Are you agreed?"
Lea looked at him steadily for a moment, and then, with a swift flush
overspreading as fair a face as ever man's eyes rested upon with love
and longing, said in a low voice that had just a perceptible tremor in it-
"Yes, I suppose might is right after all, in love as well as war and
nineteenth century society. He who can take can have; but, if you
please, we will wait until you can take."
"Agreed!" he said. "That's a bargain. And now we'll get to business.
Have you found Comrade Berthauld a quiet resting-place?" he
continued, addressing the two men, who had just returned to the room.
"Yes," said Casano in his pleasant Italian tenor. "Ve haf gifen him a
bath. I don't sink zere vill be very mooch left of him or his clothes by
ze morning."

"Very well," said Max, taking some papers out of the breast pocket of
his jacket. "Now, sit down and listen."
They obeyed in silence, Casano first bolting the door.
"First," said Max, looking up from his papers and giving a quick glance
at the expectant faces round the table, "Comrade Caserio Santo of the
Cette Group has been chosen by lot to execute the sentence passed by
this group on the 6th of February on Sadi Carnot in return for the lives
which he refused to spare. Santo will be at Lyons soon after daybreak.
If that rat Berthauld had got out of this room alive, Santo would have
been arrested, and Carnot would have escaped. I have the proofs of his
treachery here, if you wish to see them. As it is, is it agreed that I shall
direct him to offer our congratulations to M. le President on his visit to
Lyons?"
He stopped and looked round the table again. The others nodded in
silence, but Lea looked up with something like softness in her eyes, and
said-
"What a pity! Poor Carnot is an excellent fellow in his bourgeois way,
isn't he? Quite a model husband and father, incorruptible in politics,
and all that sort of thing. Wouldn't some one else do as well, say,
Casimir-Perier or Dupuy? Incorruptible politicians are not so plentiful
in France just now."
"The better the man the better the effect," said Max drily. "It is just as
easy to strike high as a little lower. There are plenty of politicians in
France, but only one President."
"Ja! dass is so," said a bright-faced, square-headed little German sitting
opposite to Lea. "Strike high and hit hart. Dat is de vay to make dese
sheepsheads open deir moufs and stare ven dey reads de papers on
Monday. Let Carnot go first, and den - veil, den someone else. Dere are
plenty of dem to spare."
A laugh followed this speech of Franz Hartog, who may as well be