“Silence that dog,” he heard some one whisper from the steps. Footsteps were heard again in the court as if someone had gone back to combat the animal. At this same moment the door leading into the court was slammed shut, and there was a rattle of the chain that fastened it on the inside.
“A precious jewel, that Stas,” thought the alchemist. “He shall pay for this to-morrow.”
A cry of pain rang out suddenly from below. It was the cry not of a dog, but of a man. “Ha,” thought Pan Kreutz, “Wolf finished that one.” There was a sound of a man running across the court. “I can’t get near him without injury,” he whispered loudly to the leader of the party. “He sank his teeth in my leg, and I am faint for pain.”
“Three of you attack him at once,” directed the leader.
There was scuffling again and suddenly the night was made hideous with the mad howling and barking of Wolf and the shrieking of men in pain; at this moment Joseph, with a light in his hand, appeared at the door on the second story:
“Wolf—Wolf,” he called.
He did not call again.
“Whew,” thought the alchemist, “they silenced the boy. A gag, probably.”
He was right. The leader of the attacking party had seized Joseph and thrown a cloth bag over his head.
“To the house,” he shouted to the men below. “Four of you stand guard at the door. Four of you wait at the stairs and let no one descend, and the rest come with me.”