to detect the slightest improbability or
contradiction in the tale. The meeting with the other travellers in the
storm Maso ascribed to the fact of their having passed him while he was
stationary, and to his greater speed when in motion; two circumstances
that were quite as likely to be true as all the rest of the account. He
had left the Refuge at the first glimpse of dawn, because he was behind
his time, and it had been his intention to descend to Aoste that night, an
exertion that was necessary in order to repair the loss.

"This may be true," resumed the judge; "but how dost thou account for thy
poverty? In searching thy effects, thou art found to be in a condition
little better than that of a mendicant. Even thy purse is empty, though
known to be a successful and desperate trifler with the revenue, in all
those states where the entrance duty is enforced."

"He that plays deepest, Signore, is most likely to be stripped of his
means. What is there new or unlooked for in the fact that a dealer in the
contraband should lose his venture?"

"This is more plausible than convincing. Thou art signalled as being
accustomed to transport articles of the jewellers from Geneva into the
adjoining states, and thou art known to come from the head-quarters of
these artisans. Thy losses must have been unusual, to have left thee so
naked. I much fear that a bootless speculation in thy usual trade has
driven thee to repair the loss by the murder of this unhappy man, who left
his home well supplied with gold, and, as it would seem, with a valuable
store of jewelry, too. The particulars are especially mentioned in this
written account of his effects, which the honorable bailiff bringeth from
his friends."

Maso mused silently, and in deep abstraction. He then desired that the
chapel might be cleared of all but the travellers of condition, the
monks, and his judges. The request was granted, for it was expected that
he was about to make an important confession, as indeed, in a certain
degree, proved to be the fact.

"Should I clear myself of the charge of poverty, Signor Castellano," he
demanded, when all the inferiors had left the place, "shall I stand
acquitted in your eyes of the charge of murder?"

"Surely not: still thou wilt have removed one of the principal grounds of
temptation, and in that thou wilt be greatly the gainer, for we know that
Jacques Colis hath been robbed as well as slain."

Maso appeared to deliberate again,