n
nerves, the bracing of hardy sinews, the keeping the mind clear and the
body warm.

Two hours to kill under the perpetual lash of a tearing north wind,
gliding up and down a half league of frozen way so as not to lose the
track in the darkness and with a shroud of inky blackness to envelop
everything around!

The hardened campaigner stood the test as only a man of abnormal
physique and body trained to privations could have stood it. As soon as
the thin grey light began to spread over the sky and picked out a few
stunted snow-covered trees, one by one, he once more started on his way.

He had less than a league to cover now, and when at last the cathedral
tower boomed out the hour of seven he was squatting on the back of the
Oude Gracht in Haarlem, and with numbed fingers and many an oath was
struggling with the straps of his skates.

A quarter of an hour later he was installed in his friend's studio in
front of a comfortable fire and with a mug of hot ale in front of him.

"I didn't think that you really meant to come," Frans Hals had said when
he admitted him into his house in response to his peremptory ring.

"I mean to have some breakfast now at any rate, my friend," was the
tired wayfarer's only comment.

The artist was too excited and too eager to get to work to question his
sitter further. I doubt if in Diogenes' face or in his whole person
there were many visible traces of the fatigues of the night.

"What news in Haarlem?" he asked after the first draught of hot ale had
put fresh life into his veins.

"Why? where have you been that you've not heard?" queried Hals
indifferently.

"Away on urgent business affairs," replied the other lightly; "and what
is the news?"

"That the daughter of Cornelius Beresteyn, the rich grain merchant and
deputy burgomaster of this city, was abducted last night by brigands and
hath not to my knowledge been found yet."

Diogenes gave a long, low whistle of well-feigned astonishment.

"The fact doth not speak much for the guardians of the city," he
remarked dryly.

"The outrage was very cleverly carried out, so I've heard said; and it
was not until close upon midnight that the scouts sent out by Mynheer
Beresteyn in every direction came back with the report that the brigands
left the city by the Groningen gate and were no doubt well on their way
north by then."

"And what was done after that?"

"I have not heard yet," replied Hals. "It is still early. When th