ill not take it ill."

"Not I!" Giovanni tried to laugh. "But what a wonderful thing is this
human imagination of ours! Now, as I talked of the secrets, I forgot
that they were my father's, they seemed almost within my grasp, I was
ready to count out the gold, to count out six thousand gold lires. Think
of that!"

"They are worth it," said Zorzi quietly.

"You should know best," answered the other. "There is no such glass as
my father's for lightness and strength. If he had a dozen workmen like
you, my brother and I should be ruined in trying to compete with him. I
watched you very closely the other day, and I watched the others, too.
By the bye, my friend, was that really an accident, or does the man owe
you some grudge? I never saw such a thing happen before!"

"It was an accident, of course," replied Zorzi without hesitation.

"If you knew that the man had injured you intentionally, you should have
justice at once," said Giovanni. "As it is, I have no doubt that my
father will turn him out without mercy."

"I hope not." Zorzi would say nothing more.

Giovanni rose to go away. He stood still a moment in thought, and then
smiled suddenly as if recollecting himself.

"The imagination is an extraordinary thing!" he said, going back to the
past conversation. "At this very moment I was thinking again that I was
actually paying out the money--six thousand lires in gold! I must be
mad!"

"No," said Zorzi. "I think not."

Giovanni turned away, shaking his head and still smiling. To tell the
truth, though he knew Zorzi's character, he had not believed that any
one could refuse such a bribe, and he was trying to account for the
Dalmatian's integrity by reckoning up the expectations the young man
must have, to set against such a large sum of ready money. He could only
find one solution to the problem: Zorzi was already in full possession
of the secrets, and would therefore not sell them at any price, because
he hoped before long to set up for himself and make his own fortune by
them. If this were true, and he could not see how it could be otherwise,
he and his brother would be cheated of their heritage when their father
died.

It was clear that something must be done to hinder Zorzi from carrying
out his scheme. After all, Zorzi's own jesting proposal, that a ruffian
should be employed to cut his throat, was not to be rejected. It was a
simple plan, direct and conclusive. It might not be possible to find
the manusc