"If a
member here or there falls out, the association remains; if one of its
high officers betrays his trust, you see how swift and terrible the
punishment is."
"I do not," said Brand. "I see that the paper decree is swift enough,
but what about the execution of it? Have the Council a body of
executioners?"
"I don't know about that," said Edwards, simply; "but I know that when
I was in Naples with Calabressa, I heard of the fate of several against
whom decrees had been pronounced; and I know that in every instance they
anticipated their own fate; the horror of being continually on the watch
was too much for them. You may depend on it, that is what Lind will do.
He is a proud man. He will not go slinking about, afraid at every
street-corner of the knife of the Little Chaffinch, or some other of
those Camorra fellows--"
"Edwards," said Brand, hastily, "there is a taint of blood--of
treachery--about this whole affair that sickens me. It terrifies me when
I think of what lies ahead. I--I think I have already tasted death, and
the taste is still bitter in the mouth.
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