or Sinigaglia. The road branches
farther on."

He waited for no more. Without word of thanks for the priceless
information I had given him, he wheeled his horse, and shouted a hoarse
command to his followers. A moment later and they were cantering past
us, the snow flying beneath their hoofs; within five minutes the last of
them had vanished round an angle of the road, and the only indication
of the halt they had made was the broad path of dirty brown where their
horses had crushed the snow.

I have been an actor in few more entertaining comedies than the cozening
of Ser Ramiro, and a witness of nothing that afforded me at once so much
relief and relish as his abrupt departure. I sank back on the cushions
of my litter, and gave myself over to a burst of full-souled laughter
which was interrupted ere it was half done by Giacopo, who had
dismounted and approached me.

"You have fooled us finely," said he, with venom.

I quenched my laughter to regard him. Of what did he babble? Was he, and
were his fellows, too, so ungrateful as to bear a grudge against the man
who had saved them?

"You have fooled us finely," he insisted in a louder voice.

"That, knave, is my trade," said I. "But it rather seems to me that it
was Messer Ramiro del' Orca whom I fooled."

"Aye," he answered querulously. "But what when he discerns how you have
played upon him? What when he discovers the trick by which you have
thrown him off the scent? What when he returns?"

"Spare me," I begged, "I am but indifferently skilful at conjecture."

"Nay, but you shall answer me," he cried, livid with a passion that my
bantering tone had quickened.

"Can it be that you are indeed curious to know what will befall when he
returns?" I questioned meekly.

"I am," he snorted, with an angry twist of the lips.

"It should be easy to gratify the morbid spirit of curiosity that
actuates you. Remain here, and await his return. Thus shall you learn."

"That will not I," he vowed.

"Nor I, nor I, nor I!" chorused his followers.

"Then, why plague me with unprofitable questions? What concern is it of
ours how Messer del' Orca shall vent his wrath when he is disillusioned.
Your duty now is to rejoin your mistress. Ride hard for Cagli. Seek her
at the sign of 'The Full Moon,' and then away for Pesaro. If you are
brisk you will gain the shelter of the Lord Giovanni Sforza's fortress
long before Messer del' Orca again picks up the scent, if, indeed, he
ever