suffered to escape. And now, furious at his loss of treasure, he
blackmails the whole region. Nobody is safe here now,--only the day
before yesterday he stopped and robbed the royal mails on the King's
highroad."

"Ho, ho! If he takes to those games, he'll soon get his teeth broken. He
won't venture to touch me though, I'll be bound."

"I don't know about that Domnule. He wears a mask and therefore has no
need to blush or blanch at anything."

"Does he ever look in here, or has he ever lodged with you?"

"No, my lord, I can safely say that he has never been here, to my great
astonishment I must confess. For a great many gentlemen call here and
many paths lead hitherward."

"Don't you keep arms in your house?"

"Why should I? I have not enough money to make it worth Fatia Negra's
while to rob me. Besides, it is a great mistake to resist him. Juon Tare
actually had him in his hands, yet what was the result? He goes about
now a blind beggar. Anicza betrayed him and brought down the soldiers
upon him, yet what did _she_ get by it? _He_ vanished under the earth,
but she reduced her old father to poverty and is now sitting with all
her acquaintances in the dungeons of Gyula Fehervar!"

"Fear nothing! At any rate no ill can befall you while I go to my
coachman and come back again. Lock this casket in your wall-cupboard in
the meantime, and keep the key yourself."

"Nay, let your lordship keep it rather. I don't want it to be said that
I knew anything about it."

So Makkabesku locked up the casket in the huge wall-closet which greatly
resembled a large standing clock case and in which were his diploma of
nobility and all his domestic treasures. The key of the locked closet he
returned to his guest. Then by way of extra precaution, he locked the
room as well and forced that key also upon the Baron.

"Domnule," he added, when he saw that Hatszegi was determined to return
to his wrecked coach. "I can only say that I should be very glad if
your lordship would not go. The servants will be quite able to bring the
carriage along."

"That they cannot: the whole lot of them are mere boors who have never
seen a carriage with an iron axle."

"Let me go then, and your lordship remain here."

"I suppose you want me, then, to show your daughter how to cook?"

The innkeeper's eyebrows contracted at these words; his desire to go
visibly subsided.

"But suppose I am afraid of being left alone in the house with so much
money?"