at fine gallant, eh, my girl?" he continued
with a harsh, flippant laugh, "and art not prepared to own to it. Well!
I'll not press thee for a confession. I am quite satisfied with thine
evasive answers. Let me but tell thee this; that the man whom thou
lovest is in deadly danger of his life."

"Great God, have pity on him!" she exclaimed involuntarily.

"In a spirit of wanton mischief--for he is not so faithful to thee as
thou wouldst wish--he has abducted a lady from this city, as thou well
knowest, since thou didst lend him thy help in the committal of this
crime. Thou seest," he added roughly, "that denials on thy part were
worse than useless, since I know everything. The lady's father is an
important magistrate in this city, he has moved every process of the law
so that he may mete out an exemplary punishment to the blackguard who
has dared to filch his daughter. Hanging will be the most merciful
ending to thy lover's life, but Mynheer Beresteyn talks of the rack, of
quartering and of the stake, and he is a man of boundless influence in
the administration of the law."

"Lord, have mercy upon us," once again murmured the wretched girl whose
cheeks now looked grey and shrunken; her lips were white and quivering
and her eyes with dilated pupils were fixed in horror on the harbinger
of this terrible news.

"He will have none on thy sweetheart, I'll warrant thee unless...."

He paused significantly, measuring the effect of his words and of that
dramatic pause upon the tense sensibilities of the girl.

"Unless ... what?" came almost as a dying murmur from her parched
throat.

"Unless thou wilt lend a hand to save him."

"I?" she exclaimed pathetically, "I would give my hand ... my
tongue ... my sight ... my life to save him."

"Come!" he said, "that's brave! but it will not be necessary to make
quite so violent a sacrifice. I have great power too in this city and
great influence over the bereaved father," he continued, lying
unblushingly, "I know that if I can restore his daughter to him within
the next four and twenty hours, I could prevail upon him to give up
pursuit of the villain who abducted her, and to let him go free."

But these words were not yet fully out of his mouth, before she had
fallen on her knees before him, clasping her thin hands together and
raising up to his hard face large, dark eyes that were brimful of tears.

"Will you do that then, O my gracious lord," she pleaded. "Oh! God will
rewa