"Yes, my son."
"You are sure?"
"Certain."
Heinrich turned to the others with a look of relief.
"Now I will tell you. This afternoon I stood at the ferry, keeping well out of sight to see what the Burgomaster was doing there. Something had gone wrong, and he was directing some men who were working at the posts which take the chains that stretch across the water-gate. Some of the men, who were standing waist-deep in the water, crossed themselves, and it was easy to see that they shrank from something. I bent forward to see what they were looking at, and there I saw them—two of those hungry vultures—walking noiselessly, side by side. When they had looked around, as if to mark whether they were observed, they disappeared among the bushes which hide the entrance to the cavern."
"What then?" Margaret half whispered, leaning forward in her chair, her lips white and parted, and her fingers on them, trembling.
"HALT!" CAME THE CRY ON THE NIGHT AIR. [See page 214.]
"I followed them, and stole along until I, too, came to the bushes. They were gone into the cavern then, but I went also, and followed until I saw them, by the light of their lantern, going to the passage which leads into the Holy House. They thought themselves alone, and talked freely to two others who had just come out of the Holy House, going, no doubt, on some nefarious errand.