"Monsieur," said he ruefully, and turned. The reflection of the
burning oil revealed Monsieur some feet away, running rapidly. Angered
by the man's unaccountable indifference, Carl leaped after him. He was
much the better runner of the two and presently swung his prisoner
about in a brutal grip and marched him savagely back to the blazing
car. Again there was an indefinable peculiarity about the manner of
the man's surrender.
"It is conventional, Monsieur," said Carl evenly, "to betray interest
and concern in the wreck of one's property. _Voila_! I have
effectively completed what you had begun. If I am not indifferent,
surely one may with reason look for a glimmer of concern from you."
Shrugging, the man stared sullenly at the car, a hopeless torch now
suffusing the lonely road with light. There was a certain suggestion
of racial subtlety in the careful immobility of his face, but his dark,
inscrutable eyes were blazing dangerously.
Carl's careless air of interest altered indefinably. Inspecting his
chafing prisoner now with narrowed, speculative eyes which glinted
keenly, he fell presently to whistling softly, laughed and with
tantalizing abruptness fell silent again. Immobile and subtle now as
his silent companion, he stared curiously at the other's fastidiously
pointed beard, at the dark eyes and tightly compressed lips, and
impudently proffered his cigarettes.
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