us move, indeed, but cautiously, prudently.

"Splendor of God!" shouted Red Oxenford, and he sprang to his feet. A
man of full habit and ruddy face he had been in his day, but since the
death of the young Alexa he seemed to have aged and whitened visibly.
His eyes were bright, as though with fever, and he went on with growing
vehemence:

"Are we, then, chapmen of Croye, calling to collect an overdue
account--prepared to sit down in humble expectancy at Dom Gillian's door
until it may pleasure him to open it? Caution, expediency! he is no
friend to Oxenford who would utter such words as these."

But Piers Major was not to be daunted. He put his hands on the shoulders
of the angry man and forced him backward into his seat.

"Nay, but you have not heard me out," continued Piers Major. "It is a
debt, indeed, for which we are pressing payment--only one of blood
rather than of gold. All the more reason, then, that the settlement
should be in full and the cost of collection kept small. Now, Dom
Gillian has shut his door in our faces, and it is a strong one. If we so
elect we may butt out our brains against it, and be none the better off.

"A fortress and a woman, there is always more than one way in which they
may be taken. Let us find that back door, and some of us may quietly
enter there while the others are parleying at the front. Once within the
walls, the fire-sticks should quickly clear the house for us."

"Ay, man," broke in Oxenford, impatiently, "but all this is words, not
deeds. What can we do so that Dom Gillian hangs from his own door-post
before a second rising of the sun?"

"I propose, then," answered Piers Major, "that the score of men who are
armed with the new weapons shall take boat down the river and make a
landing to the south of the Citadel Square, remaining in hiding until
the rising of the moon to-morrow night. The main body will force the
High Bridge at the coming dawn, and should be able to drive the Doomsmen
to cover within the next twelve hours. Then the frontal attack in force
and the gun-fire from behind. If they follow each other at the proper
interval, our victory is assured."

"It is your idea that I should go with the flanking-party?" asked
Constans.

"Naturally, since you alone know the city. We can reach the Citadel
Square from our side without difficulty, for it is a simple matter of
hewing our way thither. But with your party it must be the progress of
the snake through the grass.