Hal took it upon himself to do the talking.

"First," he said, "we would like to know how you are progressing?"

"Beautifully," was Nicolas' reply. "I have distributed the gold given me
for that purpose, first, of course, taking out my own share. The
Albanians, knowing the poverty of the Montenegrins, have been convinced
by the gold that final success in this war must crown the Austrian arms.
Austrian sentiment is becoming greater each day. But I need more money."

"That is what we have come to see you about," said Hal. "You see,
that while you are well informed as to just what is going on here, we
have only your word for it. You may be telling the truth--and you may
be lying."

Nicolas jumped to his feet, his fingers twitching.

"You dare--" he began.

"Nonsense," said Hal, remaining perfectly quiet. "This is no time for
heroics. I have come here to find out something and I am going to find it
out. Now how much of this gold have you given out as ordered, and how
much have you kept for yourself?"

"I--I--well, I have--" Nicholas began.

"As I thought," said Hal. "You have been holding out. We can't have
anything like that, you know. Where is the gold?"

Nicolas, for a moment, seemed about to make a denial, but Hal eyed him
steadily, and he said at last:

"It is under this floor here," and he tapped the floor with his foot.

"All right," said Hal. "In shape to be carried?"

"Why yes, I guess half a dozen men could carry it well enough."

"I am glad to hear that," said Hal, "because I want you to dig it out
right now."

Again Nicolas started to protest, but apparently thinking better of it,
changed his mind and said:

"It shall be as you say. But you will not hold this against me, my having
held some of the gold for my own?"

"Not if you do as I say."

"And I shall have more gold?"

"We shall see; perhaps."

"Then I shall uncover the other," said Nicolas.

He stooped to his knees and lifted a loose board in the floor.

"One moment," said Hal. "Your men outside. We can take no chances with
them. If they knew you had all this gold stored here there would be a
fight. Step outside and tell them to go away."

This time Nicolas obeyed without even hesitating.

While he was outside, Hal whispered quickly to the others:

"There is no use delaying. We'll give his men time to get out of hearing
and then we'll grab him."

"But the gold, what are you going to do with that?" Ivan wanted to know.

Ha