'Yes,' said Polycarp.
'I thank you.'
'I don't know why I should consent,' Polycarp continued, 'but I do. I
am quite in the dark. Legally, I am a disgrace to my profession. I
forfeit my professional honour. But I will consent. Do what you like. Go
out as you came in and leave no trace. If, however--'
'Don't trouble to say that,' Hugo interrupted him. 'I shall take no
unfair advantage of your generosity. The flat and all its contents are
absolutely safe in my hands. And if you should decide, in the future,
that I must accept the consequences of to-night's work, I shall not
shuffle. All I want is to be left alone _now_.'
Polycarp opened the door.
'Good-night,' he said. 'Perhaps you did save my life. But if you had
appealed on that account to my gratitude I should have been obliged to
refuse your request.'
'I know it,' said Hugo. 'I knew whom I was talking to. Good-night, and
thanks.'
'I shall lock this door,' Polycarp called out, departing.
'Yes, do; and, I say, you'll lay hands on that man of Hawke's easily
enough in a day or two.'
'Oh, certainly,' said Polycarp. 'I have not forgotten him. But I was
compelled to deal with you first.'
Twisting his white moustache, and buttoning his overcoat across the vast
acreage of his shirt-front, Polycarp disappeared from Hugo's view into
the corridor.
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