'
Again no answer.
'Then I'll tell the whole story,' the lady went on, in an angry rush of
words. 'I did what I promised to do. I enticed him here, and you've
got him safe in your vile cellar, poor little man, and you won't give
me a paltry thousand francs.'
'You have already had your price.' The words were Miss Spencer's.
They fell cold and calm on the night air.
'I want another thousand.'
'I haven't it.'
'Then we'll see.'
Prince Aribert heard a rustle of flying skirts; then another
movement - a door banged, and the beam of light through the
aperture of the window suddenly disappeared. He pushed the
window wide open. The room was in darkness, and apparently
empty.
'Now for that lantern of yours,' he said eagerly to Theodore
Racksole, after he had translated to him the conversation of the
two women, Racksole produced the dark lantern from the
capacious pocket of his dust coat, and lighted it. The ray flashed
about the ground.
'What is it?' exclaimed Prince Aribert with a swift cry, pointing to
the ground. The lantern threw its light on a perpendicular grating
at their feet, through which could be discerned a cellar. They both
knelt down, and peered into the subterranean chamber. On a
broken chair a young man sat listlessly with closed eyes, his head
leaning heavily forward on his chest.
In the feeble light of the lantern he had the livid and ghastly
appearance of a corpse.
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