nger or thirst. The approach of
darkness was in accordance with his own gloomy wishes. Twilight in
Italy is short. Night would soon be over all.

The house was on the slope of the bank. At the corner nearest him the
house was sunk into the ground in such a way that it looked as though
one might climb into the upper story window. As Dacres looked he made
up his mind to attempt it. By standing here on tiptoe he could catch
the upper window-ledge with his hands. He was strong. He was tall. His
enemy was in the house. The hour was at hand. He was the man.

Another hour passed.

All was still.

There was a flickering lamp in the hall, but the men seemed to be
asleep.

Another hour passed.

There was no noise.

Then Dacres ventured down. He moved slowly and cautiously, crouching
low, and thus traversing the intervening space.

He neared the house and touched it. Before him was the window of the
lower story. Above him was the window of the upper story. He lifted up
his hands. They could reach the window-ledge.

He put his long, keen knife between his teeth, and caught at the upper
window-ledge. Exerting all his strength, he raised himself up so high
that he could fling one elbow over. For a moment he hung thus, and
waited to take breath and listen.

There was a rush below. Half a dozen shadowy forms surrounded him. He
had been seen. He had been trapped.

He dropped down and, seizing his knife, struck right and left.

In vain. He was hurled to the ground and bound tight.

CHAPTER XXVII.

FACE TO FACE.

Hawbury, on his capture, had been at once taken into the woods, and
led and pushed on by no gentle hands. He had thus gone on until he had
found himself by that same lake which others of the party had come
upon in the various ways which have been described. Toward this lake
he was taken, until finally his party reached the old house, which
they entered. It has already been said that it was a two-story house.
It was also of stone, and strongly built. The door was in the middle
of it, and rooms were on each side of the hall. The interior plan of
the house was peculiar, for the hall did not run through, but
consisted of a square room, and the stone steps wound spirally from
the lower hall to the upper one. There were three rooms up stairs, one
taking up one end of the house, which was occupied by Mrs. Willoughby
and Minnie; another in the rear of the house, into which a door opened
from the upper hall, c