“I can’t eat. Don’t laugh at me.”
“Oh yes you can. If fair Hermoine didn’t have spasms of rage and despair each time she thinks Major Guido Amati is a very wild, reckless fellow, then it would be time to lose your appetite. When Doña Hermoine de Alva ceases to care for what Major Guido Amati does, then let Guy Chester despair.”
“On this view of the case I’ll go to supper with you,” answers Guy heartily.
And the two go off, not to one of the great inns of Antwerp this time, but to the near-by Tower of the Angels, where they get a fearful meal, though Chester seems to have an appetite now—even for its unsavory cuisine and sour wine.
Coming back from this they fall to discussing the immediate business of Guy’s visit to this city of his enemies, and decide upon the following plan: Chester is to go to work unloading his vessel in sailor style. Oliver, from his knowledge of the town, is to make the necessary investigations and have the keys manufactured.
“It wouldn’t be safe,” he says, “to have them all made by one locksmith. I’ll make a copy of this drawing, placing the draft for each key on a separate piece [[142]]of paper. You keep the originals. I’ll leave a draft of key number one with a mechanic that I know, the drawing of number two with a locksmith in another part of the city. In fact, I’d better have the other two keys made in other towns, as their guilds bring workmen together and word might get about of our orders, for these keys are very curious in their design, and will cost a good deal of money.”
“As to that,” says Guy, “I’ve got plenty for the business.”
So it is finally settled that one key is to be made at Antwerp, one at the near-by town of Malines, and the other in the capital itself. Antony is also to investigate the house near the Esplanade and see if it is as described and kept by the old deaf and dumb Spanish woman. “I must go at once to Brussels to have the key made, leaving one on the route at Malines,” says Oliver.
“Let me take the journey,” suggests Guy very eagerly. “You have work to do here.”
“And haven’t you—unloading your ship. Besides,” replies Antony, “it isn’t to have the key made that you want to go to Brussels. It is to get word with Hermoine de Alva.” Then he goes on, sternly, “No matter what she may do, no matter what she may think, keep away from her for God’s sake, until this business is settled. Suspicion upon you now would ruin everything. Forget you are Major Guido Amati de Medina, a dashing soldier and lover of the Viceroy’s daughter; remember you are only Andrea Blanco, a common merchant captain, who cares but for grog and charter money; get to unloading your vessel to-morrow morning.”