ere just waking from
some feverish sleep. "Good God! you do not think that...."

"That her life is in danger from that knave?" rejoined Beresteyn
quietly. "Well, no! I do not think that.... I do not know what to
think ... but there is a hint of danger in that rascal's presence here
in Haarlem to-day."

He rose and mechanically re-adjusted his cloak and looked round for his
hat.

"What are you going to do?" asked Stoutenburg.

"Find the knave," retorted the other, "and wring his neck if he does not
give some satisfactory account of Gilda."

"No! no! you must not do that ... not in a public place at any
rate ... the rascal would betray you if you quarrelled with him ... or
worse still you would betray yourself. Think what it would mean to us
now--at this moment--if it were known that you had a hand in the
abduction of your sister ... if she were traced and found! think what
that would mean--denunciation--failure--the scaffold for us all!"

"Must I leave her then at the mercy of a man who is proved to be both a
liar and a cheat?"

"No! you shall not do that. Let me try and get speech with him. He does
not know me; and I think that I could find out what double game he is
playing and where our own danger lies. Let me try and find him."

"How can you do that?"

"You remember the incident on New Year's Eve, when you and I traced that
cursed adventurer to his own doorstep?"

"Yes!"

"Then you remember the Spanish wench and the old cripple to whom our man
relinquished his lodgings on that night."

"Certainly I do."

"Well! yesterday when the hour came for the rascal to seize Gilda, I
could not rest in this room. I wanted to see, to know what was going on.
Gilda means so much to me, that remorse I think played havoc with my
prudence then and I went out into the Groote Markt to watch her come out
of church. I followed her at a little distance and saw her walking
rapidly along the bank of the Oude Gracht. She was accosted by a woman
who spoke to her from out the depths of the narrow passage which leads
to the disused chapel of St. Pieter. Gilda was quickly captured by the
brute whom you had paid to do this monstrous deed, and I stood by like
an abject coward, not raising a hand to save her from this cruel
outrage."

He paused a moment and passed his hand across his brow as if to chase
away the bitter and insistent recollection of that crime of which he had
been the chief instigator.

"Why do you tell me all tha