“Not kill him!” snarled Mazzard.
“No—no! Spare him, and I’ll tell you.”
“Bedad, an’ if ye do, I’ll niver forgive ye,” cried Dinny, fiercely. “Ye don’t know nawthing. He’s eshcaped.”
“Where is he!” roared Mazzard. “Speak out, woman, or I’ll blow his head off!”
Humphrey sprang up a couple of steps to defend Dinny; but Mary Dell lay there, and to show himself was to betray her—the woman whom he knew he passionately loved. Of himself he thought nothing.
But the task of betrayal to save her lover was spared to Mistress Greenheys, for, as Black Mazzard stood with one hand on Dinny’s shoulder, and his second pistol pointed close to his ear, so that his second shot should not fail, one of his men exclaimed aloud—
“Why, he’s there! Look at the blood!”
Mazzard turned and glanced down at the floor upon which he stood, then at the stained stone which formed the cover of the vault. He uttered a harsh laugh, for the stone had been slightly moved.
“Here, half a dozen of you!” he roared. “Lay hold!”
His men seized the stone; and after one or two trials to raise it up, it was thrust sideways, and the hiding-place revealed.