"It is done--well, I pay for it," responded Grassette, setting his jaw.
"It is two deaths for me. Waiting and remembering, and then with the
Sheriff there the other--so quick, and all."
The Governor looked at him for some moments without speaking. The Sheriff
intervened again officiously.
"His Honour has come to say something important to you," he remarked
oracularly.
"Hold you--does he need a Sheriff to tell him when to spik?" was
Grassette's surly comment. Then he turned to the Governor. "Let us speak
in French," he said in patois. "This rope-twister will not understan'. He
is no good--I spit at him."
The Governor nodded, and, despite the Sheriff's protest, they spoke in
French, Grassette with his eyes intently fixed on the other, eagerly
listening.
"I have come," said the Governor, "to say to you, Grassette, that you
have still a chance of life."
He paused, and Grassette's face took on a look of bewilderment and vague
anxiety. A chance of life--what did it mean?
"Reprieve?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
The Governor shook his head. "Not yet; but there is a chance. Something
has happened. A man's life is in danger, or it may be he is dead; but
more likely he is alive. You took a life; perhaps you can save one now.
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