Frank was elated, and he could talk of nothing else, save the turn of the tide in favor of Dreyfus. He insisted on going out that night, and they dined in the open air, beneath the trees, Browning and Rattleton going along.
The American lads were surprised at the calmness of the people, who had seemed so wildly excited a short time before. Listening, they heard men quietly saying, one to another, that Dreyfus was coming back at last. Some of them said there would be bloodshed the hour he set his feet on French soil, but they said it quietly, as if it were useless to struggle against fate.
Several striking-looking men came and took a table near Frank and his friends. These men talked with more excitement than had any others that night, but they were not arguing over the fate of Dreyfus. Instead, they were discussing the disruption of the Anti-Dreyfus League.
“Listen to that, Jack!” breathed Frank. “Those men belong to the league.”
“That is plain, for they are discussing the doings of the higher order.”
“It seems that there has been a serious split in the league.”
“The moment the league gets out from behind the Black Brothers, the assassin band hunts its hole. Those creatures will no longer be dangerous. The league paid them to do its bloody work, and, when the league ceases to exist, the Brothers will cease to be.”
“I’m sure of it! Oh, my dear fellow, things are coming out all right in France! Justice may sleep for a time, but there comes an hour when she awakens. That hour has arrived.”
“Well, dow the hickens—I mean, how the dickens is it that you are so intensely interested in the business, anyway, Frank? You and Jack talk as if it might be a matter of life or death with you.”
“Huah!” he said. “Don’t talk in riddles. What do you mean, anyhow?”
“That’s right,” urged Rattleton; “what do you mean?”
“That the turn affairs have taken may save my life.”
“And it is gospel truth!” nodded Diamond solemnly.
“Oh, say!” came from Harry; “get down onto the earth, and give it to us straight! Merry might be stringing us; but when did you start in backing him up in his practical jokes, Diamond?”
“There is no joke about this. I should say Frank is ready to tell you about the whole thing. When he does, you’ll drop dead!”