“To do me a service?”
“Even so, my Reggio.”
“What service?”
“I would save your life.”
“How is that—how can it be?”
“You are under the ban of the Terrible Ten,” whispered the stranger, leaning forward in the darkness, and sending the words down the steps at the gondolier.
“How know you that unless you are my enemy—unless you are the assassin sent to do the deed?” demanded Reggio.
“I know many things, but my means of knowledge I keep in my own breast. You doubt me? I swear to you that I can save you, and will—on a certain condition.”
“No one condemned by the Ten has ever escaped,” retorted Reggio.
“You shall be the first—if you agree to terms I will offer.”