During the next forenoon I had no opportunity to go to Yorke. Nor did I feel the duty quite so necessary now that I thought Louis had been beforehand in the matter of warning the governor. For a long time that morning the patroon and I were closeted together. He had begun to suspect the dwarf himself and the suspicion irritated him beyond measure. At last he suggested plainly that Louis must be aware of his motive in garrisoning the fort.

“But,” said I, sure at last that my own suspicions were correct, “why should a knowledge of your motives take him to Yorke?”

The patroon flushed with anger when he discovered how carelessly he had disclosed his secret. There seemed to be a moment’s hesitation in his mind as to what to do, but he saw plainly that I now understood the whole situation clearly. Patroon Van Volkenberg was a man who always acted with decision and at once. He saw that there was no use to brazen it out, and so he made a clean avowal.

“I took you for a man of sense, but I see that you are a fool.”

I had had too long a time of training in keeping 316cool under adverse circumstances to mind a little fling like this.

“Your words to me yesterday on the way,” I said.

He snapped his fingers. “Mere practice. I wanted someone to practice on, otherwise I should have laughed in Bellamont’s face.”

This taunt was a home thrust, the more so since I had been completely taken in at the time.

“Well,” said I, with a hint of sarcasm in my voice, in spite of my desire not to rouse him yet. “If Louis knows this I should say that you—”

“What of me?”

“That you are in a bad way.”

“True,” he answered, totally unmoved. “I have been in a bad way for a long time; but I have the Earl on the hip now.”

“He has the deed to your estate.”

“I shall get it back. I gave him that to win his confidence. I never thought he would swallow such an open bait. I took so many men with me because I thought he would order my arrest. If I had known what a gull he would prove I should have got inside the fort with half the number. But the best is yet to come. Be ready to-night to go with me to Webber’s tavern. I expect great news, glorious news; news that will shake Yorke to its foundation. In the meantime I must look for Louis.”

At that moment the door opened without a warning knock and Louis Van Ramm stepped 317across the threshold. For a moment the master and servant remained where they were without moving. The patroon sat in his great leather chair. In front of him was a table strewn with papers. A decanter of wine with a tray of glasses stood in the center, and lying close at hand, his long, sharp pointed sword. Within a yard of the door, glowering across the intervening table, was the sullen figure of the white-haired dwarf.

“Well,” said the patroon viciously after two minutes of this strained silence.

“Well,” echoed the dwarf.

“What do you come here for?”

“Money.”

“State your errand,” he cried, starting up in anger.

“That is easily done,” answered the dwarf, doggedly, at the same time taking a cautious step or two forward. “Do not get impetuous,” he continued with a sneer. “I have written out all that I know and have left the writing with my friends. I have come to ask what you will give me not to have the seals broken.”

If Louis had expected to find his master a prey to one of his usual fits of rage, he was disappointed. In a moment the patroon had overcome his first outbreak and smiled, leaning back upon the arm of his chair; then he dropped his hand cautiously on the table near the hilt of his sword.

“Now hearken, Kilian Van Volkenberg,” Louis 318began in an insolent tone. “I know why the Red Band is in the fort, and I know why William Kidd came here last night.”

The patroon had shown no emotion at the mention of the first of these facts, but the second seemed to startle him.

“So you were somewhere near about after all, were you?”

“I was in the bottom of the sideboard last night, and heard you discuss all your plans.”

“You lie,” said the patroon, yet he was calm withal. I could see the shadow of fear in his face, but he gave no sign of it by word or act. “Louis Van Ramm, you lie in your throat.”

“Perhaps, but I have written out the full account of all I heard, and my friends will break the seals at noon unless—”

“Unless what?” for Louis paused.

“Unless you pay me a thousand pounds.”

“I could pay that, you fool, but I know you lie.” The master’s voice was wavering and I knew he believed what he denied with so much confidence. “This tale does not take me in. It is impossible. You could not have overheard, and if you did there is nothing I would not be willing to have published.”

The dwarf looked at him in contempt. For a moment I doubted whether he really had any proof. It might all be a skilful lie to blackmail the patroon. But not so! Louis raised his finger slowly, pointing 319at his master. His mouth opened, but he waited maliciously before he spoke, as if he knew well the fatal result of his next word. Then he snapped out suddenly, “Jacques.”

The effect was instantaneous. With a sharp cry of rage the patroon caught up his sword. He lunged forward before either of us had a moment to think what he was doing, and passed the sharp blade clean through the body of the dwarf. Louis toppled forward across the table without uttering a sound. The glasses shattered with a crash, and the wine from the decanter trickled out and mingled with the blood which I can hear to this day, as it rattled with a sharp sound on the papers which were everywhere about. The patroon stood mopping the sweat from his brow and looking down on the body of his henchman.

“Come with me, Vincent, come with me. If what this fellow said is true, I am in a trap indeed. Perhaps the papers are in his room, perhaps he did not write them, but let us see.”

We went to Louis’s room and ransacked every corner for some sign of the papers. We sounded the floor for loose boards. We tore open the bedding. We let no nook or cranny escape our vigilance. But nothing rewarded our search.

“Well,” muttered Van Volkenberg moodily, “he must have told the truth. Someone else has the papers if they were ever written at all. Who had he for friends?” Then he swore a fearful oath, for 320he had thought of the Marmadukes. “If she comes against me—” He doubled his fists, but did not finish the sentence.

We went back to dispose of the body of Louis. When this was done the patroon prepared to summon the remaining members of the Red Band. I did not know what he wanted of his retainers, nor did I care. I remembered what Louis had said to me about the loose bricks by the oven and that I should look there in case of his death by violence. I resolved to do a little hunting on my own account and, sure enough, when I reached the place, I found two small packets, which I hastily concealed about me and retired to my room. One of the packets was marked “The Great Secret.” The other bore the date of that very day. I tore it open. Here is what I read:

“I heard the whole conversation between Van Volkenberg and Captain Kidd. The latter has come here to recruit the crew which is to take the Adventure out to sea to capture pirate ships. Van Volkenberg has agreed to furnish the eighty men needed to complete the crew. The agreement is that as soon as they are well at sea these men are to mutiny. Kidd is to give in without resistance. Then they are all to turn pirates. Van Volkenberg is to get a share of the booty and to start the rumor that this was Bellamont’s intention from the first. There was another plan disclosed”

The account stopped abruptly, without even the 321formality of a period. Louis may have been interrupted in his writing and found no chance to finish, or he may have thought better and decided not to tell all he knew. Of this fact, of course, no one will ever know. I was about to break the seal of the second packet and read the Great Secret, when I heard steps in the corridor on the way to my door. The next moment there was a knock.

“Patroon Van Volkenberg wishes your presence in the hall,” said the messenger.

Five minutes later I was at the door of the assembly room where the remainder of the Red Band had already gathered and seemed to be waiting for my appearance. This was the first time I had seen them together by daylight, and as I glanced round upon their faces, several questions that I had often asked myself were partly answered. The lower class I had seen everywhere so far in and about Yorke were men whose independence of spirit and ability to think for themselves would not have countenanced such blind obedience to a leader as was shown by these men of the Red Band. But as I looked upon them now I saw the reason. Most of them were foreigners, all of them weather-beaten soldiers or sailors, who may have seen as many campaigns or more than I had seen myself. As soldiers they had had obedience drilled into their very bones. But there was another reason yet. Three of the men who stood nearest to me had each but one ear. Several more had letters branded upon their 322foreheads or upon their hands. I knew well enough what that meant. In a time when, on the continent, as well as in the colonies, mutilation was so common, I needed no one to tell me how many of the members of the Red Band had served their time in prison. Surely this was a lawless set of men. They spared no one, and every man’s hand was against them. The newness of the patroon’s attempt to assume rights that were no longer his may have been all that accounted for his criminal deeds being kept a secret thus far; but I thought, as I looked at these men, to whom could they turn if they once deserted their present master?

Van Volkenberg had drawn largely upon his followers when he garrisoned the fort. All of those who were left behind were now gathered in the hall before me. I had not long to wait to learn the purpose of the meeting. The patroon commanded silence. In a few words he reminded his followers of the oaths of service they had all taken to him. Then he explained that Captain William Kidd was about to set out on an expedition for the welfare of the province.

“My men,” continued the patroon, “a task is expected of you. I cannot now make known to you all the particulars of your new duty. I shall entrust my plans to Edward Baine and Harold Bromm. You know and respect both of these men. You must obey them as if I were there myself to give orders. Each man shall receive at the outset twenty 323pounds. The money has already been sent aboard ship.............