through the floor, it was underneath there
that the man who set it in motion lived.

Old Onucz sighed aloud. "What things they do invent now-a-days," said
he.

But Anicza, full of superstitious fear, clung silently to the arm of
Fatia Negra whom all these speechless marvels served and obeyed.
Finally, descending six stone steps they entered the actual minting
room.

A gigantic screw press stood in the midst of the low vaulted chamber.
Through the head of the screw was driven a long moving bar, with leaden
bullets at both ends and two strong fellows were pushing this bar
backwards and forwards; the weight of the machine, as it turned, forced
the screw sharply down and in a second it pressed the two round gold
pieces laid in the steel matrix into the stamping dies, on one of which
was the image of the Mother of God and on the other the cuirassed
likeness of the reigning monarch. Immediately after the two matrices
recoiled again of their own accord and the two powerful men repeated the
pressure. Then a little steel ring shifted suddenly, flinging aside the
coined ducat, and a fresh gold piece took its place. The coined ducats
already lay in a heap in front of the machine and the workmen, now and
then, kicked them away with their feet.

There was something impressive in the spectacle. Here were two poor men,
working hard perhaps for their daily bread with little hillocks of
seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is
enamoured in the earth above them, gold for which so many men gladly
give up everything, even to their hope in Heaven!

Now and again a third man comes in and pitches the gold into a linen
sack with a wooden shovel.

"Let us stamp a few ducats ourselves by way of souvenirs," said Fatia
Negra. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and
the girl placed themselves on either side of the leaden bullets on the
turning bar.

The Mask bade his sweetheart be careful to avoid the recoil of the
machine for should the handle hit her the blow might prove fatal,
whereupon the girl, burning to show off her great strength, did not wait
for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the
iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the
result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece between the
matrices in the usual way and it thus received a double impression,
being stamped with a two-fold figure of the Mother of God on one