“Here.” The man thrust him a few coins. He took them greedily and felt them over in the darkness, for the stranger was holding under his coat the lantern that he had picked up from the ground.
“This is not all?” Stas’ voice rose to a whine.
“Swine!” For a moment the man lost control of himself. “Here is the rest, then,” and he swung his free hand to Stas’ throat, and sank his fingers in the flesh. Stas fought but could not release himself from those fingers that dug like iron points—at length the man freed him.
“No more of that,” he admonished. “The next time you will find yourself in paradise, or some other world. Listen, fool, once and for all—if all goes well here I will give you double of that which you already have. But if you betray me, or make one foolish blunder, then you will receive, not gold, but a punishment that is worse than anything you dream of.”
Stas beat a retreat down the stairs, the stranger behind him.
“Remember,” was the final admonishment, “we will be here just after the second hour has sounded. Let us in, and your part in this is finished.”
Now it so happened that Pan Kreutz, the alchemist, was working alone in the loft above his room that night. He had already finished one experiment, and was about to begin a more difficult one, when his attention was caught by the sudden barking of a dog in the court beneath.
“What can that be?” he thought. “There is no moon to cause barking, nor does the dog bark at any of the dwellers in the court.” He quickly threw a covering over the lantern that lighted the loft and opened the door so that he might look down.
His suspicions that all was not well in the court were confirmed in the next second when he heard a whispered conversation somewhere below, while the stairs creaked as if two persons were ascending. Then all at once came an exclamation of pain in a voice that he recognized as Stas’.
More whispering, and the footsteps descended.