'"Wait a minute, ci-devant," I says at last. "I am half English
and half French, but I am not the half of a man. I will tell thee
something the Indian told me. Has thee seen the President?"
'"Oh yes!" he sneers. "I had letters from the Lord Lansdowne
to that estimable old man."
'"Then," I says, "thee will understand. The Red Skin said that
when thee has met the President thee will feel in thy heart he is a
stronger man than thee."
'"Go!" he whispers. "Before I kill thee, go."
'He looked like it. So I left him.'
'Why did he want to know so badly?' said Dan.
'The way I look at it is that if he had known for certain that
Washington meant to make the peace treaty with England at any
price, he'd ha' left old Faucher fumbling about in Philadelphia
while he went straight back to France and told old Danton - "It's
no good your wasting time and hopes on the United States,
because she won't fight on our side - that I've proof of!" Then
Danton might have been grateful and given Talleyrand a job,
because a whole mass of things hang on knowing for sure who's
your friend and who's your enemy. just think of us poor shop-
keepers, for instance.
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