l decided on
that course, and advancing to the door he opened it and called to his
prisoner to come out.

To his credit be it said the sight of the lad's wealed face gave the
Syndic something of a shock. He was soon to be more gravely shaken.
Instigated partly by curiosity, partly by the desire to fix Louis'
scared faculties, he began by asking what was the aspect of the phial
which the lad had omitted to bring. "What was its colour and size, and
how full was it?" he proceeded, striving to speak gently and to make
allowance for the cowering weakness of the youth before him. "Do you
hear?" he urged. "Of what shape was it? You can tell that at least. You
handled it, I suppose? You took it out of the metal box?"

Louis burst into tears.

Blondel had much ado--for it was true, he had small command of
himself--not to strike the lad again. Instead, "Fool," he said, "what do
your tears help you or advance me? Speak, I tell you, and answer my
question! What was the appearance of this flask or bottle, or what it
was--that you left there?"

The lad sank to his knees. Fear and pain had robbed him of the petty
cunning he possessed. He no longer knew what to tell nor what to
withhold. And in a breath the truth was out. "Don't strike me!" he
wailed, guarding his smarting face with his arm. "And I'll tell you all!
I will indeed!"

The Syndic knew then that there was more to learn. "All?" he repeated,
aghast.

"Ay, the truth. All the truth," Louis moaned. "I didn't see it. I did
not go to it! I dared not! I swear I dared not.'"

"You did not see it?" the Syndic said slowly. "The phial? You did not
see the phial?"

"No."

This time Messer Blondel did not strike. He leant heavily upon the
table; his face, which a moment before had been swollen with impatience,
turned a sickly white. "You--you didn't see it?" he muttered--his tone
had sunk to a whisper. "You didn't see it? Then all you told me was a
lie? There was nothing--no bottle in the box? But how, then, did you
know anything of a bottle? Did he"--with a sharp spasm of pain--"send
you here to tell me this?"

"No, no! She told me. She looked--for me in the box."

"Who?"

"Anne. Anne Royaume! I was afraid," the lad continued, speaking with a
little more confidence, as he saw that the Syndic made no movement to
strike him, "and she said that she would look for me. She could go to
his room, and run little risk. But if he had caught me there he would
have killed me! Inde