"Not I. He has only fainted. The better for him if he never
came out of it again."

I felt a hand within my tunic.

"Matteo is right," said a voice. "His heart beats like a hammer.
Let him lie and he will soon find his senses."

I waited for a minute or so and then I ventured to take a
stealthy peep from between my lashes. At first I could see
nothing, for I had been so long in darkness and it was but a dim
light in which I found myself. Soon, however, I made out that a
high and vaulted ceiling covered with painted gods and goddesses
was arching over my head. This was no mean den of cut-throats
into which I had been carried, but it must be the hall of some
Venetian palace. Then, without movement, very slowly and
stealthily I had a peep at the men who surrounded me. There was
the gondolier, a swart, hard-faced, murderous ruffian, and beside
him were three other men, one of them a little, twisted fellow
with an air of authority and several keys in his hand, the other
two tall young servants in a smart livery. As I listened to
their talk I saw that the small man was the steward of the house,
and that the others were under his orders.

There were four of them, then, but the little steward might be
left out of the reckoning. Had I a weapon I should have smiled
at such odds as those. But, hand to hand, I was no match for the
one even without three others to aid him. Cunning, then, not
force, must be my aid. I wished to look round for some mode of
escape, and in doing so I gave an almost imperceptible movement