once more the cool, resourceful adventurer, as befitted my
nature and training.

"Sentries are stationed only along the open side of the square, I
think?" I whispered to my companion questioningly, striving vainly to
penetrate the intense darkness in our front.

"True," he responded in so low a voice I could scarcely catch the
words, a slight falter betraying that the strange conditions preyed
upon his unaccustomed nerves. "It was thus they were posted last
night."

"Then we will assume the risk of finding clear passage. Keep close,
and venture no speech, whatever happens."

It proved slow work at the best, as it would never do to have a Spanish
spy dogging our footsteps. I doubt not it tested good Father Petreni
to the uttermost, yet I thought the better of him for the determined
way in which he clung to my heels through the darkness. As for myself,
such dodging, twisting, climbing of walls, and skulking amid shadows,
merely sufficed to warm the blood, and yielded greater zest for the
more serious work to follow. I claim small credit for courage in such
matters; they have ever been so much a portion of life to me that their
excitement became scarcely more than a draught of heady wine. He was
the truly brave man who, without any such incentive as I possessed,
left his books and quiet cell that night to follow me abroad.

At last we ran across the great deserted market-place, and paused,
crouching breathlessly in the dense shadows of the huge warehouse
standing upon the very brink of the broad river. As we rested thus we
could hear soft lapping of running water along the further wall, while
occasionally some vagrant puff of air brought to our strained ears the
distant creaking of chains, as the great war-vessels swung by their
cables against the swift current. Beyond this the night was intensely
still, black, unfathomable, mysterious. It seemed fairly to weigh down
upon us with its noiseless burden of gloom.

"Are you acquainted with the interior arrangement of this building?" I
asked the priest in some anxiety.

"I was within it only once, and observed little of its features. I was
called there in haste to speak words of peace to a sorely injured man."

"Could you guide to the ladder leading up to the second floor in the
dark?"

I thought he gave a gesture of dissent, yet so dense was the night I
could barely note the movement.

"I am not certain, my son, yet to my remembrance it leadeth up near th