there were diamonds in question and
papal patronage; if not, Tito's adroit agency had strengthened his
position with Savonarola and with Spini, while any confidences he
obtained from them made him the more valuable as an agent of the
Mediceans.

But Spini was an inconvenient colleague. He had cunning enough to
delight in plots, but not the ability or self-command necessary to so
complex an effect as secrecy. He frequently got excited with drinking,
for even sober Florence had its "Beoni," or topers, both lay and
clerical, who became loud at taverns and private banquets; and in spite
of the agreement between him and Tito, that their public recognition of
each other should invariably be of the coolest sort, there was always
the possibility that on an evening encounter he would be suddenly
blurting and affectionate. The delicate sign of casting the becchetto
over the left shoulder was understood in the morning, but the strongest
hint short of a threat might not suffice to keep off a fraternal grasp
of the shoulder in the evening.

Tito's chief hope now was that Dolfo Spini had not caught sight of him,
and the hope would have been well founded if Spini had had no clearer
view of him than he had caught of Spini. But, himself in shadow, he had
seen Tito illuminated for an instant by the direct rays of the lamp, and
Tito in his way was as strongly marked a personage as the captain of the
Compagnacci. Romola's black-shrouded figure had escaped notice, and she
now stood behind her husband's shoulder in the corner of the loggia.
Tito was not left to hope long.

"Ha! my carrier-pigeon!" grated Spini's harsh voice, in what he meant to
be an undertone, while his hand grasped Tito's shoulder; "what did you
run into hiding for? You didn't know it was comrades who were coming.
It's well I caught sight of you; it saves time. What of the chase
to-morrow morning? Will the bald-headed game rise? Are the falcons to
be got ready?"

If it had been in Tito's nature to feel an access of rage, he would have
felt it against this bull-faced accomplice, unfit either for a leader or
a tool. His lips turned white, but his excitement came from the
pressing difficulty of choosing a safe device. If he attempted to hush
Spini, that would only deepen Romola's suspicion, and he knew her well
enough to know that if some strong alarm were roused in her, she was
neither to be silenced nor hoodwinked: on the other hand, if he repelled
Spini ang