human
You may not believe it, he went on,
gpt
Why?
human
Why? cried the baron hoarsely.
gpt
Don't you _see_ why? You know everything now, _everything_. It isn't guesswork, it isn't deduction, it's absolute certainty. You have _seen_ my confession, you _know_ that I killed Martinez, that I robbed this girl of her fortune, that I am going to let an innocent man suffer in my place. You know that to be true, don't you?
human
Yes, I know it to be true.
gpt
And because it's true, and because we both know it to be true, neither one of us can draw back. We _cannot_ draw back if we would. Suppose I said to you: 'Coquenil, I like you, I'm going to let you go free.' What would you reply? You would say: 'Baron de Heidelmann-Bruck, I'm much obliged, but, as an honest man, I tell you that, as soon as I am free, I shall proceed to have this enormous fortune you have been wickedly enjoying taken from you and given to its rightful owner.' Isn't that about what you would say?
human
I suppose it is,
gpt
You know it is, and you would also say: 'Baron de Heidelmann-Bruck, I shall not only take this fortune from you and make you very poor instead of very rich, but I shall denounce you as a murderer and shall do my best to have you marched out from a cell in the Roquette prison some fine morning, about dawn, between a jailer and a priest, with your legs roped together and your shirt cut away at the back of the neck and then to have you bound against an upright plank and tipped forward gently under a forty-pound knife'--you see I know the details--and then, phsst! the knife falls and behold the head of De Heidelmann-Bruck in one basket and his body in another! That would be your general idea, eh?
human
Yes, it would,
gpt
Ah! smiled the baron.
human
You see how I have protected myself _against my own weakness_. I must destroy you or be destroyed. _I am forced_, M. Coquenil, to end my friendly tolerance of your existence.
gpt
I see, murmured M. Paul.
human
If I hadn't read that diary, your nerve would have been a little dulled for this--business.
gpt
That's it.
human
Whereas now the thing _has_ to be done and--you'll do it.
gpt
Exactly! Exactly!
human
How soon will the girl be here?
gpt
She's undoubtedly here now. She is waiting outside.
human
Does she know it was a trick, about the ring?
gpt
Not yet.
human
Do you think it's necessary to--to include _her_ in this--affair?
gpt
I think I'd better make a clean job of it.
human
You mean _both?_
gpt
Yes.