aes. My life, your own, those of all our friends are entirely in
your hands: the welfare of the State, the triumph of our faith depend on
the means which you will devise for silencing Gilda for a few brief
days."

After which there was silence between the two men. Beresteyn walked more
rapidly along, his fur-lined cloak wrapped closely round him, his arms
folded tightly across his chest and his hands clenched underneath his
cloak. Stoutenburg on the other hand was also willing to let the matter
drop and to allow the subtle poison which he had instilled into his
friend's mind to ferment and bring forth such thoughts as would suit his
own plans.

He knew how to gauge exactly the somewhat vacillating character of
Nicolaes Beresteyn, and had carefully touched every string of that
highly nervous organization till he left it quivering with horror at the
present and deathly fear for the future.

Gilda was a terrible danger, of that there could be no doubt. Nicolaes
had realized this to the full: the instinct of self-preservation was
strong in him; he would think over Stoutenburg's bold suggestion and
would find a way how to act on it. And at the bottom of his tortuous
heart Stoutenburg already cherished the hope that this new complication
which had dragged Gilda into the net of his own intrigues would also
ultimately throw her--a willing victim--into his loving arms.

CHAPTER VII

THREE PHILOSOPHERS AND THEIR FRIENDS

Whereupon Chance forged yet another link in the chain of a man's
destiny.

I pray you follow me now to the tapperij of the "Lame Cow." I had not
asked you to accompany me thither were it not for the fact that the
"Lame Cow" situate in the Kleine Hout Straat not far from the Cathedral,
was a well-ordered and highly respectable tavern, where indeed the sober
merry-makers of Haarlem as well as the gay and gilded youth of the city
were wont to seek both pleasure and solace.

You all know the house with its flat facade of red brick, its small
windows and tall, very tall gabled roof that ends in a point high up
above the front door. The tapperij is on your left as you enter. It is
wainscotted with oak which was already black with age in the year 1623;
above the wainscot the walls are white-washed, and Mynheer Beek, the
host of the "Lame Cow," who is a pious man, has hung the walls round
with scriptural texts, appropriate to his establishment, such as: "Eat,
drink and be merry!" and "Drink thy wine w