eplied Nizza. "I will go to him myself."

"As you please," returned Hodges. "Leonard shall accompany you. You will
easily find the cottage. It is about two hundred yards beyond the gate,
on the right, near the old doghouses."

"I know the spot perfectly," rejoined Leonard.

"I would recommend you to put on a mask," observed the doctor to Nizza;
"it may protect you from molestation. I will find you one below."

Leading the way to a lower room, he opened a drawer, and, producing a
small loo mask, gave it her. The youthful pair then quitted the house,
Nizza taking Bell under her arm, as she intended leaving her with her
father. The necessity of the doctor's caution was speedily manifested,
for as they crossed Saint Paul's churchyard they encountered Pillichody,
who, glancing inquisitively at Nizza, seemed disposed to push his
inquiries further by attempting to take off her mask; but the fierce
look of the apprentice, who grasped his staff in a menacing manner,
induced him to abandon his purpose. He, however, followed them along
Cheapside, and would have continued the pursuit along the Old Jewry, if
Leonard had not come to a halt, and awaited his approach. He then took
to his heels, and did not again make his appearance.

As they reached the open fields and slackened their pace, Leonard deemed
it prudent to prepare his companion for her interview with her father by
mentioning the circumstance of the packet, and the important secret
which he had stated he had to disclose to her.

"I cannot tell what the secret can relate to, unless it is to my
mother," rejoined Nizza. "She died, I believe, when I was an infant. At
all events, I never remember seeing her, and I have remarked that my
father is averse to talking about her. But I will now question him. I
have reason to think this piece of gold," and she produced the amulet,
"is in some way or other connected with the mystery."

And she then explained to Leonard all that had occurred in the vault
when the coin had been shown to Judith Malmayns, describing the nurse's
singular look and her father's subsequent anger.

By this time, they had entered a narrow footpath leading across the
fields in the direction of a little nest of cottages, and pursuing it,
they came to a garden-gate. Opening it, they beheld the piper seated
beneath a little porch covered with eglantine and roses. He was playing
a few notes on his pipe, but stopped on hearing their approach. Bell,
who had been