Granville's estate

This must be the most shameless and despicable request that Louis and Allred have ever seen, or in other words, this is already a blatant blackmail-only relying on the signature on a contract and the fake orders made by Sologne. Tea, Jacques Bernard and the people behind him are about to wrest from the hands of Allaide a manor worth 15 francs, the future value will rise with time, take de Grand In addition to the most precious wealth of the Ville family and the reliance on restoring its former glory, Alrede must pay him [-] francs in cash, in exchange for the reputation of the Granville family not being stained in court!

And after careful consideration, how much did this Mr. Bernard lose in this so-called fake tea incident?At most, he would lose [-] to [-] francs in principal, but he could get back [-] francs in cash and a manor, which is equivalent to taking away one-third of a noble family's property without any effort—perhaps just like Fei Count Fernand said, the greed of the Parisians is like a pigeon's sac, it will never be filled!

"Mr. Bernard, this is the most unreasonable request I have ever seen. You are asking for an exorbitant price! It is impossible for me to agree to such a condition."

Allred forced himself to suppress his anger and spoke. He tried to control Bernard's request within an acceptable range, but the other party in this unequal negotiation neither cared nor Willing to give up every penny.

"Mr. de Granville, as I have already said, if you want to preserve the honor of your family, you must pay me for my losses—you can either give me a bill for 15 francs, Either give me the manor in your name, and thirty thousand francs more."

Even though he had already prepared himself for Bernard's greed, when he heard Bernard's offer again, Alred still couldn't restrain the indignation burning in his heart, and he stood up from the chair all of a sudden. Get up, look at the despicable tea merchant, and speak to him as well as the police officer: "Mr. Jacques Bernard, the 15 compensation you claim has no legal basis at all, and you want me to use my The estate is even more impossible. I would rather go to court and argue with you in front of the justice and jury, than give up my family property in order to satisfy your desire, but only for the sake of Keep my name out of a crime I had no part in!"

"Ah! Mr. de Granville, this is not something you should say in front of the police officer. I advise you to calm down. Don't make rash assertions because of the momentary enthusiasm. It will only cost you An even heavier price."

Bernard, relying on the protection of Clermont Police Officer, was completely confident. He seemed to be kind enough to persuade the two young people who were already angry, and every word was like a poisoned needle: "Mr. Ladies, you are still young, but don't lose your mind for a little money, and put your family, your relatives, and yourself in an irreparable situation. Among other things, M. de Granville, Don't you have a loving and wealthy father who would not have been able to bear the death penalty if he saw his son thrown away with the convicts in the prison of Bicetre Shock? And your sister, I heard that is a very beautiful, well-educated lady, she is not married, if her brother is in prison, or expelled from France, exiled to the colonies , what is she to do? Gentlemen, before any decision is made, we'd better keep our cool, as the saying goes, 'Caveantsules'!"

"It's Sologne Grostedt who really deserves to go to prison, and those who deliberately pretend not to see his traps and try to get something for nothing!"

Allred, who heard Bernard mentioning his family, couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed the coarse cloth bag used to hold the fake tea leaves, and swept the dyed leaves that had been poured on the table to the ground, pointing at them and glaring. Looking at Bernard: "Look at these things, these crude so-called tea leaves! Bernard, as you said, these things only need to be soaked and wiped on paper to see the abnormality in them, and you Been in the tea business for decades, how can you not know these things exist for months - you are just deliberately indulging Grostedt's behavior to get what you want out of it Benefit!"

"Oh, M. de Granville, you know that false accusation is a very serious crime."

Jacques Bernard didn't even change his face when faced with Alred's accusation: "If you think that this kind of poor excuse can divert the attention of the judge and jury and escape responsibility, then you are wrong. Mr. Constable Du Clermont can testify before the judge that Grostetter's criminal methods are very clever. He has not seen such a sophisticated method of counterfeiting in all his years in Paris; and I am only a small businessman. , I only know how to work hard all day long, and I believe so much in the noble status of his other partner, so how could I have thought that he would sell me fake tea?"

Bernard sounded very sincere and honest when he said these words, but the half-smile on his face gave him away, proving that Alred's accusation was probably true: "Sir, I just I am an unidentified businessman, going to court is not a big deal for me, but you are different, the son of a noble earl was actually brought to court for participating in the crime of counterfeiting, when the time comes Won't this be great news throughout France, across Paris and your hometown? To save you and your family from that embarrassing situation, sir, I advise you to accept my offer anyway. , the deeds at 150 [-] Moore Street are all real!"

"Jacques Bernard! You hateful Jew, damned liar, usurer vampire!"

"Al!"

"Monsieur de Granville!"

Just when Alred was so angry with Bernard that he almost lost his mind and wanted to jump up and fight with him, Officer Claremont who was sitting on the side spoke out. His voice was very severe, and his right hand had already stretched out again. Into the pocket where the pistol was hidden: "Mr. de Granville, please be sure to calm down, otherwise I will take necessary measures according to the situation, and even arrest you now to protect Mr. Jacques Bernard's life." Right now."

This is already an obvious cover-up. Alred was so angry that he was panting heavily, and his usual elegant demeanor was forgotten: "Ah, yes, Mr. Bernard's right! Then, please Mr. Inspector, through whom should I obtain my rights, also deceived by Grossetter?"

"Mr. de Granville, although I sympathize with your experience, it is a pity that everyone has to be responsible for their own choices. If you don't want your family to be dragged down by your previous too rash behavior, you'd better It’s better to make the right decision as soon as possible.”

"If what you mean by the right decision is to allow Jacques Bernard to take from me all the wealth my father has worked so hard to accumulate, then with all due respect, Monsieur Inspector, I cannot do it!"

Alred took a deep breath to calm himself down, and looked straight into Officer Claremont's eyes: "Mr. Officer, if Mr. Bernard thinks that with the two contracts in his hand, I can If the manor and property are taken, then he is wrong--yes, Grostedt did a crime, but I did nothing! I would rather go to court to be talked about and doubted by people than Confront the real criminals in front of the justices and juries to clear me of suspicion, and I will never be willing to hand over my family's most important property!"

"While I admire your courage, I do not advise you to do so, especially when all the criminal evidence, witnesses and testimony can point against you."

After saying this sentence, Officer Jillonette Du Clermont also stood up from his chair, and he looked at Alred with enough eyes to make people feel chills: "Please allow me to remind you Mr. de Granville, Mr. Bernard's conditions may seem unacceptable to you, but if you go to court, you will only face a worse situation than you are now-in those irrefutable In the face of the evidence, the jury will find you the mastermind of this crime, and Mr. Bernard's request is reasonable. In this way, you are likely to be found guilty and also auctioned off by the court Isn't the painful price of losing freedom, reputation and property at the same time more terrible than the conditions that Mr. Bernard is asking now? In this case, why do you refuse Mr. Bernard's kindness?"

"Ah, yes, Mr. Inspector, that's it. If this gentleman refuses to pay a small price now, it's useless to give up all his property when he comes before the judge. gone."

Bernard folded his hands and looked at Alred triumphantly: "Mr. de Granville, for the sake of your family's noble surname, I have already offered you a good enough condition—— Did I ask you to hand over all the properties under your name before I would return the two crucial contracts? I only asked you for the 15 yuan that I lost in the past few months It’s just francs, and I’m even willing to let you use a small manor worth only 12 francs to offset the debt of [-] francs, so as to generously bear the loss of [-] francs. Isn’t this condition enough to show my goodwill? You know, old Jacques is usually not such a talkative person!"

"Oh, kindness! Jacques Bernard, if this condition you make can be called kindness, then the Jewish usurers are probably the kindest kind of people in the world."

Alred said coldly that he had realized that he had fallen into a trap specially designed for him, and that he had no choice but to succumb to the threats of Clement and Bernard: the man in front of him What the police officer said seemed to be a well-meaning advice, but he was actually telling Alred that if he could not give them the money that satisfied them, he would make Alred "become" the mastermind of the crime on Moore Street and be sent to prison. To jail while the real counterfeiters get away with it!

Bernard must have heard the sarcasm in Alred's words, but he didn't care: "Of course, Mr. de Granville, after all, we have had a very pleasant cooperation! To be honest, this is really a It is a very good deal, only need a note and a small sum of 15 francs, the reputation and status of you and your family are all preserved; and you are not bankrupt, you can stay in Paris and continue to be your handsome son Well, you can go around, and no one will know that you have almost been involved in such a crime! Of course, if you think this is too much trouble, and a [-] franc bill is more convenient, you You can also take it out now, so that I can tell my servant to go to the bank to exchange it before it is dark—as long as you have money, old Jacques never picks it."

"I'm surprised you know if I'm going broke, Bernard, so Grostedt told you a lot about me."

Alrede almost squeezed out this resentful sentence through his teeth. He looked back at Louis who was standing behind him, and found his friend standing there with one hand tightly grasping the back of the chair, looking Almost out of breath.

The two friends just glanced at each other, and Alrede knew that Louis had also seen the way and knew the dangerous situation they were in; if it was normal, he would have gone over to care about Louis' body. Did he feel unwell, but this time he just stared at Louis for a while, then turned around and walked towards the stairs.

"Monsieur de Granville, where are you going?"

Seeing Alred's unexpected behavior, Bernard immediately became vigilant: "Why, sir, are you planning to escape from the window on the second floor like that Grostedt?"

"Please give me some time to calm down alone, two gentlemen, after all, this matter involves my family's precious reputation and property. I need to calm down before I can give you an accurate answer."

Alred, who had already stepped on the steps, said coldly, he even taunted Bernard: "If I really escape, you can justifiably issue a warrant for my arrest, and then seize the property under my name, Isn't it, Mr. Bernard? Isn't this a dream for you?"

Bernard snorted, looked at Officer Clermont, and only spoke after receiving the latter's signal: "A quarter of an hour, sir, a quarter of an hour at most, you must know that my time is very precious, if you don't If you are willing to come down, I would be more than happy to go to the second floor to visit your house—besides, I have already sent my servants to guard the street outside, so please don't make any wrong decisions!"

Already ignored him this time, and went straight up the stairs without even looking back at them; and after the master left, there were only two unwelcome people left in the first-floor living room. The guests and Louis, as well as Father Thongsar who was hiding behind the door, who dared not even make a sound, and Joseph, who was held tightly by Father Thongsar, all of a sudden, the living room fell into a deadly chaos. silence.

"Hmph, what a good-tempered young master!"

After losing sight of Alred, Bernard said to himself, then cleared his throat, and spit thick phlegm on the ground in a "pooh".

"Excuse me, gentlemen, please allow me to leave for a while, I am going to be with my friends."

Louis didn't want to stay with these two people for a minute. Out of a keen intuition, he noticed that Alrede's expression didn't seem quite right when he spoke just now, so he only briefly said something to Officer Claremont. He hurried up to the second floor, and perhaps because he thought his existence was irrelevant, Jacques Bernard didn't stop him.

As soon as he walked up to the second floor, Louis immediately found the panic-stricken Mary. This girl had probably been hiding by the stairs and eavesdropping on the conversation in the living room on the first floor, so he knew what happened.

"Mr. Louis, sir, he, he went to the study..."

Mary said this to Louis with a trembling voice. She tightly grasped the small cross around her neck with her hands, her face was frighteningly pale, and she looked like she was about to faint.

And when Louis pushed open the door of the study and saw what Alred was fiddling with sitting at the table, he understood why Mary was so frightened.

What his friend held in his hand was a silver pistol with graceful and smooth lines.

"Al!"