“You have heard the news?” she said.
“Alas! cousin, I have,” he answered, “and it is very terrible. Is it true that this treasure of Hendrik Brant’s is at the bottom of it all?”
She nodded, and answered, “I believe so.”
“Then could they not bargain for their lives by surrendering its secret?”
“Perhaps. That is, Foy and Martin might—Dirk does not know its whereabouts—he refused to know, but they have sworn that they will die first.”
“Why, cousin?”
“Because they promised as much to Hendrik Brant, who believed that if his gold could be kept from the Spaniards it would do some mighty service to his country in time to come, and who has persuaded them all that is so.”
“Then God grant it may be true,” said van de Werff with a sigh, “for otherwise it is sad to think that more lives should be sacrificed for the sake of a heap of pelf.”
“I know it, cousin, but I come to you to save those lives.”
“How?”