hands till he
found the grappling-hook of his rope. The wall rose perpendicularly from
the canal, and he had moored his little skiff to the only ring he could
find at the base of it, some distance from the corner.

Ortensia listened anxiously for the promised signal, and peered into the
darkness, her hand on the window, ready to close it as soon as she knew
he was safe.

But suddenly she heard the sound of oars striking the water, and a
yellow glare rose above the wall from the other side.

'Who goes there?' asked a deep voice.

No one answered, but instantly there was a heavy splash, as of a body
falling into the canal.

Half-an-hour later Ortensia was lying on her back again, staring up at
the rosette in the canopy. But her face was distorted with horror now,
and was whiter than the pillow itself.

In the day-room, by the light of Ortensia's little lamp, Pina was on her
knees, carefully mopping up the water that had run down from Stradella's
clothes, and drying the marble floor.

CHAPTER IV

Soon after sunrise the Senator came and unlocked the doors of Ortensia's
day-room. That had always been his custom, for he kept the key under his
pillow, as has been said, and he would as soon have thought of sending a
servant to liberate the girl and the woman in the morning as of letting
any one but himself lock them in at night.

'The master's eye fattens the horse,' he said to himself, quoting a
Spanish proverb without much regard for metaphors.

It was his wont to open the door, and to look into the large room before
going away, for he was sure that his eye would at once detect the
slightest disarrangement of the furniture, or anything else unusual
which might warrant suspicion.

But this morning he did more: he entered the room, shut the door behind
him and looked about. He went to the window and examined the fastenings
carefully, opened it wide, went out into the loggia and looked down into
the garden. Everything was in order there, not one flower-pot had been
upset by the squall, not a branch of the cypress-tree was broken or even
bent.

Then he came in again and tapped sharply at the door of the
dressing-room where Pina slept. She appeared instantly, already dressed;
but she laid one finger on her lips, to keep him silent, and came out
into the room before she spoke.

She said that Ortensia had been kept awake half the night by the storm,
and was now sound asleep.

'A thief tried to get into th