moke and age, and the walls constructed of
rough stone work. There was, so far as he could see, no furniture
whatever in it, and he imagined that it was an underground cellar,
used perhaps, at some time or other, as a storeroom. It was some
time before his brain was clear enough to understand what had
happened, or how he had got into his present position. Gradually
the facts came back to him, and he was able to think coherently, in
spite of a splitting headache, and a dull, throbbing pain at the
back of his head.

"I was knocked down and stunned," he said to himself, at last. "I
wonder what became of Stanislas. I hope he got away.

"This does not look like a prison. I should say that it was a
cellar, in the house of one of the gang that set upon me. It is
evident that someone has betrayed me, probably that Jew, Ben
Soloman. What have they brought me here for? I wonder what are they
going to do with me."

His head, however, hurt him too much for him to continue the strain
of thought, and, after a while, he dozed off to sleep. When he
awoke, a faint light was streaming in through a slit, two or three
inches wide, high up on the wall. He still felt faint and dizzy,
from the effects of the blow. Parched with thirst, he tried to call
out for water, but scarce a sound came from his lips.

Gradually, the room seemed to darken and become indistinct, and he
again lapsed into insensibility. When he again became conscious,
someone was pouring water between his lips, and he heard a voice
speaking loudly and angrily. He had picked up a few words of Polish
from Stanislas--the names of common things, the words to use in
case he lost his way, how to ask for food and for stabling for a
horse, but he was unable to understand what was said. He judged,
however, that someone was furiously upbraiding the man who was
giving him water, for the latter now and then muttered excuses.

"He is blowing the fellow up, for having so nearly let me slip
through their fingers," he said to himself. "Probably they want to
question me, and find out who I have been in communication with.
They shall get nothing, at present, anyhow."

He kept his eyes resolutely closed. Presently, he heard a door
open, and another man come in. A few words were exchanged, and,
this time, wine instead of water was poured down his throat. Then
he was partly lifted up, and felt a cooling sensation at the back
of his head. Some bandages were passed round it, and he was laid