the unshaken testimony of two witnesses. Well, I tell you, it
isn't easy to come by; there is great danger to the honest folk who
seek it, for these heretics are desperate people, and if they find a spy
while they are engaged in devil-worship at one of their conventicles,
why--they kill him."

"I know all that, mother. What are you trying to cover up that you are
so talkative? It isn't your usual way of doing business. Well, it is a
bargain--you shall have your money when you produce the evidence.
And now really if we stop here much longer people will begin to make
remarks, for who shall escape aspersion in this censorious world? So
good-night, mother, good-night," and he turned to leave the room.

"No, Excellency," she croaked with a snort of indignation, "no pay, no
play; I don't work on the faith of your Excellency's word alone."

"How much?" he asked again.

"A hundred florins down."

Then for a while they wrangled hideously, their heads held close
together in the patch of moonlight, and so loathsome did their faces
look, so plainly was the wicked purpose of their hearts written upon
them, that in that faint luminous glow they might have been mistaken
for emissaries from the under-world chaffering over the price of a
human soul. At last the bargain was struck for fifty florins, and having
received it into her hand Black Meg departed.

"Sixty-seven in all," she muttered to herself as she regained the
street. "Well, it was no use holding out for any more, for he hasn't got
the cash. The man's as poor as Lazarus, but he wants to live like Dives,
and, what is more, he gambles, as I learned at The Hague. Also, there's
something queer about his past; I have heard as much as that. It must be
looked into, and perhaps the bundle of papers which I helped myself to
out of his desk while I was waiting"--and she touched the bosom of her
dress to make sure that they were safe--"may tell me a thing or two,
though likely enough they are only unpaid bills. Ah! most noble cheat
and captain, before you have done with her you may find that Black Meg
knows how to pay back hot water for cold!"

CHAPTER V

THE DREAM OF DIRK

On the day following Montalvo's interview with Black Meg Dirk received
a message from that gentleman, sent to his lodging by an orderly, which
reminded him that he had promised to dine with him this very night. Now
he had no recollection of any such engagement. Remembering with shame,
however, that ther