Suppose, for
example, it was proposed to hang you, and eleven voted for the execution
and nine against it. Do you think we nine would submit to the verdict of
the eleven? Not so. I am myself the most peaceful of men, but the moment
it came to that point, I should run my sword through the proposer of the
execution before he had time to draw his weapon. In other words, I'd
murder him to lessen the odds, and then we'd fight it out like men."
"Why didn't you say all this last night, Greusel?"
"Last night my whole attention was concentrated on inducing Kurzbold to
forget that you had threatened the company with a hangman's rope. Had he
remembered that, I could never have carried the vote of confidence. But
you surely saw that the other men were most anxious to support you if
your case was placed fairly before them, a matter which, for some
reason, you thought it beneath your dignity to attempt."
"My dear Joseph, your wholesale censure this morning does much to
nullify the vote I received last night."
"My dear Roland, I am not censuring you at all; I am merely endeavoring
to place facts before you so that you will recognize them.
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