'Where is Besso? I have already smoked two chibouques, and no one has
entered except yourself. I suppose you have heard the news?'
'Who has not? It is in every one's mouth.' 'What have you heard?' asked
Barizy of the Tower, with an air of malicious curiosity.
'Some things that everybody knows,' replied Pasqualigo, 'and some things
that nobody knows.'
'Hah, hah!' said Barizy of the Tower, pricking up his ears, and
preparing for one of those diplomatic encounters of mutual pumping,
in which he and his rival were practised. 'I suppose you have seen
somebody, eh?'
'Somebody has been seen,' replied Pasqualigo, and then he busied himself
with his pipe just arrived.
'But nobody has seen somebody who was on the spot?' said Barizy.
'It depends upon what you mean by the spot,' replied Pasqualigo.
'Your information is second-hand,' observed Barizy.
'But you acknowledge it is correct?' said Pasqualigo, more eagerly.
'It depends upon whether your friend was present----' and here Barizy
hesitated.
'It does,' said Pasqualigo.
'Then he was present?' said Barizy.
'He was.'
'Then he knows,' said Barizy, eagerly, 'whether the young English prince
was murdered intentionally or by hazard.'
'A--h,' said Pasqualigo, whom not the slightest rumour of the affair had
yet reached, 'that is a great question.
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