Here Marie, who had recovered from her alarm, came forward, and laid her hand over her small defender's eyes.
"Take down your gun, Laczko," she commanded. Then turning to the stranger asked: "What do you want, my good man?"
For answer the man merely pronounced a name:
"Sophie Botta."
Without an instant's hesitation, and although she shuddered involuntarily when her eyes fell on the stranger's repulsive countenance, the young girl went close to his side, and said calmly:
"What do you wish me to do?"
Satan Laczi held the thumb-ring toward her, and said:
"The person who wears this sent me to fetch you away from here. Are you ready to come with me at once?"
"I am," replied Marie, who seemed unable to remove her eyes from the hideously ugly face before her.
"My master," continued the ex-robber, "also bade me fetch a little steel casket. Do you know where it is hidden?"