w, sir," whispered Denis eagerly, influenced as he was by the
masterful spirit and words of his tutor.

"Then try, boy; try your best to help me, while we have time. You
promise me this?"

"Of course, sir. But what," cried Denis, with his eyes flashing, "if I
already know?"

"Boy!" cried Leoni excitedly; and he caught his young companion by the
shoulders, but checked himself, instantly drew back, walked slowly
across the room to the door, opened it and looked out, and then came
back and signed to Denis to close the window, while he softly moved here
and there; and the boy noticed how, as if to examine the beauty of the
silken hangings, he touched them again and again, as if to make sure
that no listener was concealed behind.

Leoni ended by joining his young companions in the deep embrasure of the
window, taking him by the arm, and pressing him towards the diamond
panes of the casement as if to draw his attention to something out
beyond the terrace and the steep slope below.

"Now," he said, in a quick whisper, "speak beneath your breath. You
know where?"

"In the tall, square-turreted cabinet three parts of the way down the
long corridor by the King's private apartments."

"Ah, I have not been there, and dared not raise suspicion by asking
permission to go. Are you sure?"

"Carrbroke has as good as told me it was there. He spoke of a charm
with fateful powers of its own, and that the King held gems as sacred
relics."

"Ah!" ejaculated Leoni softly. "Boy, you make me begin to live."

"Shall I tell you something more, sir?"

"There can be nothing more that I wish to hear," whispered Leoni. "Boy,
you have filled an empty void. But speak; tell me what more you have to
say."

"The King has a secret passage whose door is in the arras two chambers
down the long corridor farther on."

"Young Carrbroke told you so?"

"Yes."

"Bah! But it would be a secret way known only to himself, of no avail
to us. It could not be found. Once the relic is in our hands, a silken
rope and some window must be our way."

"But I know the secret of the passage, sir, how to open the door, and
where the passage leads."

"Where, boy, where?" cried Leoni excitedly.

"Down to the grounds, and then by a long winding alley through the
private gardens to the riverside."

"Hist!" whispered Leoni. "No more, boy, for your words have seemed to
burn. Ah, it is strange! The workings too of fate. What I have
striven for i