, which hath been left undone, a word
hath been given and that pledge must be fulfilled, and the promised
fortune still awaits him who will bring the jongejuffrouw safely to her
father!

"My God, if it were not for that broken shoulder and that torn
hip! ... there are many hours yet before the morrow."

"Old compeer!" came in a hoarse whisper close to his ear, "how did you
come to such a pass?"

"They came and took the jongejuffrouw away from Rotterdam," he replied
also speaking in a whisper. "I had just returned from Delft, where I had
business to transact and I recognized Jan beside the sledge into which
the jongejuffrouw was stepping even then. He had ten or a dozen men with
him. I felt that they meant mischief--but I had to follow ... I had to
find out whither they were taking her...."

"Verdommt!" growled Socrates under his breath. "Why did you not take us
along?"

"I meant to come back for you, as soon as I knew ... but in the
dark ... and from behind, seven of these fellows fell upon me ... they
used their skates like javelins ... mine were still on my feet ... I had
only Bucephalus.... A blow from one of the heaviest blades cracked my
shoulder, another caught me on the hip. There were seven of them," he
reiterated with a careless laugh, "it was only a question of time, they
were bound to bring me down in the end."

"But who has done this?" queried Pythagoras with an oath.

"A lucky rogue on whom God hath chosen to smile. But," he added more
seriously and sinking his voice to the lowest possible whisper, "never
mind about the past. Let us think of the future, old compeers."

"We are ready," they replied simultaneously.

"A knife?" he murmured, "can you cut these confounded ropes?"

"They took everything from us," growled Socrates, "ere they let us
approach you."

"Try with your hands to loosen the knots."

"What ho! you brigands, what are you doing there?"

In a moment the circle around broke up. A crowd of angry faces were
gathered closely round the philosophers, and more than one pair of rough
hands were laid upon their shoulders.

"Play fair, you two!" cried Piet the Red, who was in command, "or we'll
tie you both to the nearest beams and await my lord's commands."

"Easy, easy, friend," quoth Diogenes with a pleasant laugh, "my nose was
itching and my compeer held on to my arm while he tried to reach my nose
in order to scratch it."

"Then if it itch again," retorted the man with an equall