d, last
night, to be able to thank you fully for the service you had rendered
them.

"Matteo, do you come with us."

Three days passed, and no decision of the council had been announced,
when, early in the morning, one of the state messengers brought an
order that Francis should be in readiness, at nine o'clock, to
accompany him. At that hour a gondola drew up at the steps. It was a
covered gondola, with hangings, which prevented any from seeing who
were within. Francis took his seat by the side of the official, and the
gondola started at once.

"It looks very much as if I was being taken as a prisoner," Francis
said to himself. "However, that can hardly be, for even if Ruggiero
convinced the council that he was wholly innocent of this affair, no
blame could fall on me, for I neither accused nor identified him.
However, it is certainly towards the prisons we are going."

The boat, indeed, was passing the Piazzetta without stopping, and
turned down the canal behind, to the prisons in rear of the palace.
They stopped at the water gate, close to the Bridge of Sighs, and
Francis and his conductor entered. They proceeded along two or three
passages, until they came to a door where an official was standing. A
word was spoken, and they passed in.

The chamber they entered was bare and vaulted, and contained no
furniture whatever, but at one end was a low stone slab, upon which
something was lying covered with a cloak. Four of the members of the
council were standing in a group, talking, when Francis entered. Signor
Polani, with two of his friends, stood apart at one side of the
chamber. Ruggiero Mocenigo also, with two of his companions, stood on
the other side.

Francis thought that the demeanour of Ruggiero was somewhat altered
from that which he had assumed at the previous investigation, and that
he looked sullen and anxious.

"We have sent for you, Francisco Hammond, in order that you may, if you
can, identify a body which was found last night, floating in the Grand
Canal."

One of the officials stepped forward and removed the cloak, showing on
the stone slab the body of a young man. On the left temple there was an
extensive bruise, and the skin was broken.

"Do you recognize that body?"

"I do not recognize the face," Francis said, "and do not know that I
ever saw it before."

"The wound upon the temple which you see, is it such as, you would
suppose, would be caused by the blow you struck an unknown perso