angry, and that she herself was the subject of conversation.

'I tell you it is the only thing to be done; so what's the use of
talking about it, you fool,' were the first words she distinguished.

'But,' interrupted another voice, evidently a woman's, 'would it not
be better to wait and see?'

'Death and fury, wait and see what?' fiercely exclaimed the first
speaker. 'If she's dead, it'll do her no harm; and if she isn't, the
sooner a stopper's put in her mouth the better.'

Completely roused from her stupor by the danger with which she was
threatened, Anna opened her eyes, and perceived that she was in a
large vaulted cellar, at one end of which was a small heated furnace.
Scattered about the floor, and on rudely-constructed work-benches, as
though the persons using them had hastily abandoned their employment,
were many curious-looking tools and machines, together with heaps of
metal of different sizes, and in different stages of manufacture,
from the merely moulded shape to the finished shilling or guinea.
Some half-dozen or eight men and women were grouped together, amongst
whom she recognised the _ghost_, not quite divested of his masquerade
dress. In a single glance Anna perceived all this, and it needed no
conjuror to tell her that she had fallen into the hands of a gang of
coiners.

Fully sensible of the peril of her situation, her extraordinary
courage did not forsake her; for Anna, though somewhat peculiar in
her religious opinions, was perfectly sincere, and even at this awful
moment felt unshaken, confidence in the protecting care of
Providence. Though a foreigner, she possessed great command of the
English language, and her style, notwithstanding its singularity and
quaintness, was well calculated to overawe the rude and lawless band
into whose hands she had fallen. With a calm and steady gaze she met
the eye of the ruffian, who brandished his weapon before her, and
said, 'I pray you do not commit this great wickedness, nor shed the
blood of a helpless woman, who has never injured you.'

'Oh, come,' interrupted the man in a surly tone, 'let's have none of
that gammon, for it'll be of no use. If folk will meddle in others
folk's concerns, they must take the consequences; we're not such
fools as to put the rope round our own necks, I can tell you.'

'Nay, but hear what I have to say,' repeated Anna, eluding the man's
grasp as he endeavoured to seize hold of her; 'my coming here was no
fault of my own