“Father Jacob! You must be a new sort of a Gentile. Never came across a reptile of your pattern before. Is that why Countess took to you?”
“I cannot say. It was the child, I think, that attracted her. Well, friend, I am thankful for your warning. But how come you to know?”
A smothered laugh, as hoarse as the voice, replied—
“Folks have ways and means, sometimes, that other folks can’t always guess.”
“If you know more than others,” said Gerhardt boldly, “suffer me to question you a moment.”
“Question away. I don’t promise to answer.”
“Are we all to be taken and examined?”
“All.”
“Before the King?”
“And the creeping creatures called Bishops.”