had offered him this head of mine
on a dish as a bribe, not only would I have forgiven you but I would
have said that you did right. You are a maid, and you had to protect
yourself from a very dreadful thing; therefore who can blame you?"

"I can," said Martha. "Ramiro might have torn me to pieces with red-hot
pincers before I told him."

"Yes," said Martin, who felt that he had a debt to pay, "Ramiro might,
but I doubt whether he would have gone to that trouble to persuade you
to take a husband. No, don't be angry. 'Frisian thick of head, Frisian
free of speech,' goes the saying."

Not being able to think of any appropriate rejoinder, Martha turned
again upon Elsa.

"Your father died for that treasure," she said, "and Dirk van Goorl died
for it, and your lover and his serving-man there went to the torture-den
for it, and I--well, I have done a thing or two. But you, girl, why, at
the first pinch, you betray the secret. But, as Martin says, I was fool
enough to tell you."

"Oh! you are hard," said Elsa, beginning to weep under Martha's bitter
reproaches; "but you forget that at least none of you were asked to
marry--oh! I mustn't say that. I mean to become the wife of one man;"
then her eyes fell upon Foy and an inspiration seized her; here, at
least, was one of whom she could make a friend--"when you happen to be
very much in love with another."

"Of course not," said Foy, "there is no need for you to explain."

"I think there is a great deal to explain," went on Martha, "for you
cannot fool me with pretty words. But now, hark you, Foy van Goorl, what
is to be done? We have striven hard to save that treasure, all of us; is
it to be lost at the last?"

"Aye," echoed Martin, growing very serious, "is it to be lost at the
last? Remember what the worshipful Hendrik Brant said to us yonder
on that night at The Hague--that he believed that in a day to come
thousands and tens of thousands of our people would bless the gold he
entrusted to us."

"I remember it all," answered Foy, "and other things too; his will, for
instance," and he thought of his father and of those hours which Martin
and he had spent in the Gevangenhuis. Then he looked up at Martha and
said briefly: "Mother, though they call you mad, you are the wisest
among us; what is your counsel?"

She pondered awhile and answered: "This is certain, that so soon as
Ramiro finds that we have escaped, having the key to it, he will take
boat and sail to the p