cited fancy, the
words seemed to tinkle like falling ice as one by one they came from
his lips. He spoke in Italian--perfect Italian of Venice--and young Day,
whose teeth where chattering with fear, translated his words.

"Is this your welcome to a stranger," he said, "the companions of whose
voyage have unhappily met with misfortune?" Here with a faint motion of
his fingerless glove he indicated the dead who lay all about the decks
of that fatal ship. "Would you, men of Venice, kill a poor, unarmed
stranger who has travelled to visit you from the farthest East and seen
much sorrow on his way?"

"Ay, we would, sorcerer!" shouted one. "Our brothers were in that ship,
which we know, and you have murdered them."

"How did you learn Italian in the farthest East?" asked another.

Then for the second time, like hounds closing in on a stag at bay, they
sprang toward him with their poised knives.

Again he lifted his hand, again the semi-circle halted as though it
must, and again he spoke.

"Are there none here who will befriend a stranger in a strange land?
None who are ashamed to see a poor, unarmed stranger from the East
done to death by these wolves who call themselves children of the white
Christ of Mercy?"

Now Hugh touched Dick upon the shoulder.

"Rise and come," he said, "it is our fate"; and Dick obeyed.

Only after he had translated the Man's words, David fell down flat upon
the quay and lay there.

They stepped to the yellow-capped Man and stood on each side of him,
Hugh drawing his sword and Dick the battle-axe that he carried beneath
his robe of silk.

"We will," said Hugh shortly, in English.

"Now there are three of us," went on the Man. "The stranger from the
East has found defenders from the West. On, defenders, for I do not
fight thus," and he folded his arms across his broad breast and smiled
with the awful eyes.

Hugh and Dick knew no Italian, yet they both of them understood, and
with a shout leaped forward toward those hungry knives. But their
holders never waited for them. Some sudden panic seized them all, so
that they turned and ran--ran straight across the wide Place of Arms and
vanished into the network of narrow streets by which it was surrounded.

CHAPTER XIII

MURGH'S ARROW

Hugh and Dick came back. Something seemed to call them back, although no
blow had been struck. The Man stood where they had left him, staring at
nothing in particular. Apparently he was engaged in medi