archi contemptuously, by
way of explanation and apology.

Arisa was instantly pacified.

"If he should be foolish enough for that, I have means that will keep
him," she answered.

"I do not see how you can force him to do anything except by his passion
for you."

"I can. I was not going to tell you yet--you always make me tell you
everything, like a child."

"What is it?" asked the Greek. "Have you found out anything new about
him? Of course you must tell me."

"We hold his life in our hands," she said quietly, and Aristarchi knew
that she was not exaggerating the truth.

She began to tell him how this was the third time that a number of
masked men had come to the house an hour after dark, and had stayed till
midnight or later, and how Contarini had told her that they came to play
at dice where they were safe from interruption, and that on these nights
the servants were sent to their quarters at sunset on pain of dismissal
if Jacopo found them about the house, but that they also received
generous presents of money to keep them silent.

"The man is a fool!" said Aristarchi again. "He puts himself in their
power."

"He is much more completely in ours," answered Arisa. "The servants
believe that his friends come to play dice. And so they do. But they
come for something more serious."

Aristarchi moved his massive head suddenly to an attitude of profound
attention.

"They are plotting against the Republic," whispered Arisa. "I can hear
all they say."

"Are you sure?"

"I tell you I can hear every word. I can almost see them. Look here.
Come with me."

She rose and he followed her to the corner of the room where the small
silver lamp burned steadily before an image of Saint Mark, and above a
heavy kneeling-stool.

"The foot moves," she said, and she was already on her knees on the
floor, pushing the step.

It slid back with the soft sound Contarini had heard before he came
upstairs. The upper part of the woodwork was built into the wall.

"They meet in the place below this," Arisa said. "When they are there, I
can see a glimmer of light. I cannot get my head in. It is too narrow,
but I hear as if I were with them."

"How did you find this out?" asked Aristarchi on the floor beside her,
and reaching down into the dark space to explore it with his hand. "It
is deep," he continued, without waiting for an answer. "There may be
some passage by which one can get down."

"Only a child could pass. You see