with my father."

"With your father?"

"With my father," reiterated Beresteyn. "That fool, Hals, was with him,
and there were another half dozen busy-bodies sitting round the table.
Our man was evidently the centre of interest; I could not then hear what
was said, but at one moment I saw that my father shook him cordially by
the hand."

"Vervloekte Keerl!" exclaimed Stoutenburg.

"I didn't know at first what to do. I didn't want to go into the
tapperij and to show myself just then, but at all costs I wished to know
what my father and that arrant rascal had to say to one another. So,
bidding Jan on no account to lose sight of the man, I made my way round
to the service door behind the bar, and there bribed one of the wenches
to let me stand under the lintel and to remain on the watch. It was
quite dark where I stood and I had a good view of the tapperij without
fear of being seen, and as my father and that cursed adventurer were
speaking loudly enough I could hear all that they said."

"Well?" queried Stoutenburg impatiently.

"Well, my friend," quoth Beresteyn with slow emphasis, "that vervloekte
scoundrel was making a promise to my father to bring Gilda safely back
to Haarlem, and my father was promising him a fortune as his reward."

"I am not surprised," remarked Stoutenburg calmly.

"But...."

"That man, my friend, is the most astute blackguard I have ever come
across in the whole course of my life. His English blood I imagine hath
made him into a thorough-going rogue. He has played you false--always
did mean to play you false if it suited his purpose! By God, Nicolaes!
what fools we were to trust one of these foreign adventurers. They'll do
anything for money, and this man instead of being--as we thought--an
exception to the rule, is a worse scoundrel than any of his compeers. He
has simply taken Gilda a little way out of Haarlem, and then came back
here to see what bargain he could strike with your father for her
return."

"Gilda is some way out of Haarlem," rejoined Beresteyn thoughtfully.
"Jan and I heard that knave talking to his friend Hals later on. Hals
was asking him to sup and sleep at his house. But he declined the
proffered bed, though he accepted the supper: 'I have a journey before
me this night,' he said, 'and must leave the city at moonrise.' It
seemed to me that he meant to travel far."

"She may be still at Bennebrock, or mayhap at Leyden--he could not have
taken her further than that