"At first you suggested that we should torture him," sneered the
indolent man, "and now you tremble like a girl at the idea of killing
him! Listen to me, Jacopo; if you think that I will leave this house
while this fellow is alive, you are most egregiously mistaken."

He had drawn his dagger while he was speaking, and before he had
finished it was dangerously near Zorzi's throat. Contarini retired a
step as if not daring to defend the prisoner, whose assailant, in spite
of his careless and almost womanish tone, was clearly a man of action.
Zorzi looked fearlessly into the eyes that peered at him through the
holes in the mask.

"It is curious," observed the other. "He does not seem to be afraid. I
am sorry for you, my man, for you appear to be a fine fellow, and I like
your face, but we cannot possibly let you go out of the house alive."

"If you choose to trust me," said Zorzi calmly, "I will not betray you.
But of course it must seem safer for you to kill me. I quite
understand."

"If anything, he is cooler than Venier," observed one of the company.

"He does not believe that we are in earnest," said Contarini.

"I am," answered Venier. "Now, my man," he said, addressing Zorzi again,
"if there is anything I can do for you or your family after your death,
without risking my neck, I will do it with pleasure."

"I have no family, but I thank you for your offer. In return for your
courtesy, I warn you that my master's skiff is fast to the step of the