at the door. Having reached
the outer door, he drew a key from his doublet, and asked in Italian:

"Who knocks?"

"Open the door, Julio; it is your companion Bernardo," was the reply in
the same tongue.

"Of course, on the way you stopped at the _Camel_, and drank some pots of
Hamburg beer? Did you bring me as much as a pint?" asked the man with the
red beard. "Nothing? have you nothing? I have worked until I am exhausted;
I am dying of hunger, and no one thinks of me. Let me see the spring."

Saying these words, he took from his companion's hands a bent steel spring
and examined it attentively, closing and opening it as if to judge of its
form and power of resistance.

Bernardo was a deformed man of low stature; the projection on his back
might be styled a hump--it was so prominent. His physiognomy denoted
pusillanimity; but there was, at the same time, a malicious sparkle in his
eye, and it was with a mocking smile that he contemplated the man with the
red beard.

The latter said to him in a commanding tone: "The spring appears to be
good. Go bring me a pint of Rhenish wine from the Saint George."

"You know well that our master has forbidden it. Let me go; the signor
ordered me to return immediately to the factory."

"Get me the wine, or I will break this spring in a thousand pieces over
your hump."

"Always threatening!" muttered Bernardo. "You know I am not wanting in
good-will. I will go for the wine; give me the money."

"Money? I have not a farthing in my pocket. Lend me the price of this
pint."

"My purse is empty, Julio; but yours? Our master gave you ever so many
shillings yesterday. You told me so yourself."

"Bah! the dice made way with the whole of it."

"Hardened gambler!" said Bernardo, with a sigh. "You would risk your soul
at the gaming-table if any one held out to you a gold coin."

"Very likely!" replied Julio, in an indifferent tone; "my soul is hardly
worth more."

"What impious words! We are alone now, but there is One above who hears
what we say. He will punish you, Julio."

The red-haired man shrugged his shoulders.

"Continue your dissolute habits," resumed Bernardo; "lose your money in
gambling, drown your senses in intoxication: at the end of this path there
is a gallows, and behind it the devil, to whom all such souls are welcome.
Adieu! reflect upon my words, and remember that the justice of God will
one day demand an account of your life. Adieu!"

Julio sprang towar