“If your power is so great, if it can give you all the riches that I long for, why do you give it up?”
“Do not trouble yourself about me. The master for whom I shall have won a retainer will liberally reward me.”
“And if I take your place, shall I also have to take your form?”
“Yes, in the nighttime; by day you will be a man again.”
“The nights are long, dark, full of snares; I may be brought down by a bullet from a keeper, or be caught in a trap, and then goodbye riches, goodbye position and pleasure.”
“Not so; for this skin that covers me is impenetrable by iron, lead or steel. As long as it protects your body, you will be not only invulnerable, but immortal; once a year, like all werewolves, you will become a wolf again for four and twenty hours, and during that interval, you will be in danger of death like any other animal. I had just reached that dangerous time a year ago today, when we first met.”
“Ah!” said Thibault, “that explains why you feared my Lord Baron’s dogs.”
“When we have dealings with men, we are forbidden to speak anything but the truth, and the whole truth; it is for them to accept or refuse.”
“You have boasted to me of the power that I should acquire; tell me, now, in what that power will consist?”
“It will be such that even the most powerful king will not be able to withstand it, since his power is limited by the human and the possible.”
“Shall I be rich?”