When the captain's door was reached and Burle had taken out
his latchkey he ventured to ask:
"Well?"
"Well," answered the major gruffly, "I am as dirty a rogue as you are.
Yes! I have done a scurrilous thing. The fiend take you! Our soldiers
will eat carrion for three months longer."
Then he explained that Gagneux, the disgusting Gagneux, had a horribly
level head and that he had persuaded him--the major--to strike a
bargain. He would refrain from informing the colonel, and he would
even make a present of the two thousand francs and replace the forged
receipts by genuine ones, on condition that the major bound himself to
renew the meat contract. It was a settled thing.
"Ah," continued Laguitte, "calculate what profits the brute must make
out of the meat to part with such a sum as two thousand francs."
Burle, choking with emotion, grasped his old friend's hands, stammering
confused words of thanks. The vileness of the action committed for his
sake brought tears into his eyes.
"I never did such a thing before," growled Laguitte, "but I was driven
to it. Curse it, to think that I haven't those two thousand francs in
my drawer! It is enough to make one hate cards. It is my own fault.
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