ask of you would call forth your chivalry
and need not shame it; it would call forth your daring and your
recklessness of consequences and if you will undertake to do me service
in this, my gratitude and that of my friends as well as the sum of 2,000
guilders will be yours to command."

"About a tenth part of the money in fact which your father, sir, doth
oft give for a bulb."

"Call it 3,000, sir," said Nicolaes Beresteyn, "we would still be your
debtors."

"You are liberal, sir."

"It means my life and that of my friends, and most of us are rich."

"But the lady--I must know more about her. Ah sir! this is a hard matter
for me--A lady--young--presumably fair--of a truth I care naught for
women, but please God I have never hurt a woman yet."

"Who spoke of hurting her, man?" queried Nicolaes haughtily.

"This abduction--the State secret--the matter of life and death--the
faithful dependent--how do I know, sir, that all this is true?"

"On the word of honour of a gentleman!" retorted Beresteyn hotly.

"A gentleman's honour is easily attenuated where a woman is concerned."

"The lady is my own sister, sir."

Diogenes gave a long, low whistle.

"Your sister!" he exclaimed.

"My only sister and one who is dearly loved. You see, sir, that her
safety and her honour are dearer to me than mine own."

"Yet you propose entrusting both to me," said Diogenes with a mocking
laugh, "to me, a nameless adventurer, a penniless wastrel whose trade
lies in his sword and his wits."

"Which must prove to you, sir, firstly how true are my instincts, and
secondly how hardly I am pressed. My instinct last night told me that in
this transaction I could trust you. To-day I have realized more fully
than I did last night that my sister is a deadly danger to many, to our
country and to our Faith. She surprised a secret, the knowledge of which
had she been a man would have meant death then and there in the chapel
of the cathedral. Had it been a brother of mine instead of a sister who
surprised our secret, my friends would have killed him without
compunction and I would not have raised a finger to save him. Being a
woman she cannot pay for her knowledge with her life; but her honour and
her freedom are forfeit to me because I am a man and she a woman. I am
strong and she is weak; she has threatened to betray me and my friends
and I must protect them and our cause. I have decided to place her there
where she cannot harm us, but some