THE EAVESDROPPERS AND THE PLOT
Gysbert did not keep his sister long in doubt as to the use he proposed
to make of Alonzo de Rova's Toledo blade. The first thing he did caused
her considerable wonder and not a little alarm. In one corner of the
room he pried up the tiles of the flooring for the space of a square
foot, and cut away the planking underneath, leaving nothing but some
thin lath and plaster between them and the room below.
"Oh, Gysbert! what art thou doing?" asked Jacqueline in distress. "We
will be discovered and all will be lost!"
"Not at all!" said Gysbert as he covered up his work by carefully
replacing everything he had removed. "No one will suspect what I have
done, and through this hole we can listen to much that goes on below.
We may hear something worth while if we listen hard enough! But that is
only one thing I intend to do with this valuable weapon. Let me show
thee to what other use it may be put!" He went to the window,
reconnoitered long and carefully to see that no one was near, and then
commenced to file away at one of the iron bars, digging carefully into
the wood in which it was imbedded, and using every effort to dislodge it
from the socket in which it was set.
"This will be a long and tedious piece of work," he remarked. "There are
three thick bars, each set stoutly in woodwork nearly as hard as iron
itself, and we want to do this work so carefully that it will not be
noticeable should anyone enter the room. Each bar will have to be
loosened both top and bottom, and I know not how long it will take us.
We will work as constantly as we can, and I doubt not in time we shall
be free as the birds, as far as this window is concerned. 'Tis a good
thing the blade is sharp and enduring!"
"Yes, but even so," demurred Jacqueline, "what are we going to do when
the bars are loosed? To be as free as the birds, as thou sayest, we must
have wings, for we are fully twenty feet from the ground!"
"There are many ways to get out of a window, Jacqueline, as thou wouldst
know if thou hadst climbed in and out of one as many times as I have!
But that too will all come in good season, and meanwhile we must work
away at the bars." Hope,--even vague and indefinite hope,--lends wings
to the soul and zest to the brain and hands. This faint glimmer that had
been cast across the blackness of the two children's prospects so filled
their hearts with its brightness that they were almost gay, as they
sawed away on the stout iron bars. They would have shouted and sung, had
not that performance surely encouraged unwelcome attention in their
direction.
That same night Gysbert removed the tiles and piece of plank from the
hole he had dug in the flooring. Leaning over it the children strove to
gather, from any sounds they might hear, what was going on beneath them.
It was destined that they should hear something that night which while
it enlightened them upon several points hitherto inscrutable, served in
no way to add to their peace of mind. The room just under theirs was
evidently one that was not often used, for it seemed to be dark and
deserted. Presently however, a light shown through the cracks in the
ceiling, someone was heard moving about, and voices whispered words that
could not be distinguished. At length the sentence, "He is even now
coming!" penetrated up through the ceiling, and there was another
silence. Then the neighing of horses was heard outside. A loud tramping
of heavily shod feet resounded on the wooden floors, the door of the
room below opened, and three people entered.
"Sit you down! Pray, sit you down!" said a voice easily recognized as
Dirk Willumhoog's. "We will be secure here from all interruption and can
talk freely, with absolutely no fear of being overheard!" Here Gysbert
pinched Jacqueline till she almost laughed aloud. Two gruff voices
replied in monosyllables, and there was a scraping of chairs and
jingling of spurs, as the two horsemen placed themselves at the table.
"Now," commanded one of the gruff voices, "tell us quickly, Dirk
Willumhoog, what is this plan that thou hast, and we will then discuss
whether it be worth considering!"
"Nay, nay, Commander Valdez!" whined Dirk. "We must not be quite so
speedy!"
"Didst thou hear that, Jacqueline?" whispered Gysbert. "Commander
Valdez!--Now we are going to hear something worth while!"
"Come, come!" put in the third voice impatiently. "Why all this
parleying? If thou hast a plan worth considering, out with it, and thou
shalt be recompensed accordingly. Dost thou think us willing to sit here
all night to split hairs with such as thou?"
"Not so fast! not so fast, Colonel Borgia!" complained Dirk. "If my plan
is worth anything it is worth bargaining for, and I do not intend to
sell it cheaply, I assure you!"
"Jacqueline," again whispered Gysbert, "there is some dreadful plan
afoot! Colonel Borgia is the Spaniard in command of Fort Lammen, the
strongest redoubt against the city. Listen!--"
"Well, Dirk," interrupted Valdez, perceiving evidently that it would not
do to try bullying this subtle rascal, "tell us then what is thy price
for the service thou dost propose to render the Spanish army?"
"Fifty thousand florins!" replied Dirk, calmly but firmly.
"_Fifty thousand flying devils!_" roared Valdez pounding the table with
his fist. "Dost thou think the Spanish treasury is a mine of diamonds?
Away with thee, thou scurvy rascal! Come, Borgia! 'tis useless parleying
with a madman!"
"Gentlemen," remarked Dirk, quite unmoved by this outburst on the part
of the Spanish general, "you do me wrong. Did you but know my plan, you
would say it was easily worth full twice the amount I have named.
However, I have other ways of disposing profitably of my secret, should
my terms not appeal to you!" In the silence that ensued, the two
listeners could imagine the Spaniards consulting each other with
uncertain glances. At last the voice of Valdez spoke again, this time in
a more conciliatory tone:
"Willumhoog, I am not authorized to offer any such amount as thou dost
name. But I swear to thee that I will consult with one ever gracious
and merciful King Philip II, at the earliest opportunity, to obtain this
amount for thee, using every influence in my power."
"Will your worship put that down in writing?" inquired Dirk eagerly.
"Certainly, certainly!" replied the general, glad to have made an
impression so easily. Dirk hastened out, evidently to obtain pen and
paper, and was back again in a jiffy. "I have one more request to make,"
he remarked in honeyed tones. "As thou wilt!" said Valdez.
"It is that your worship will write at my dictation."
There was another uneasy pause, and then the general acquiesced,
muttering that he did not have to write anything that he did not wish!
"I, General Valdez," dictated Dirk, "Commander of the Spanish army
before Leyden, do hereby give my promise that I will intercede with His
Majesty, Philip II, to pay over to Dirk Willumhoog, for the valuable
secret he shall impart concerning an unknown entrance into the city, the
sum of fifty thousand florins." Scratch, scratch went the pen, and
coming to this point, Valdez exclaimed: "There now I will sign my name!"
"Not quite yet!" said Dirk quietly. "There is something else!"--"And if
I do not succeed in so persuading His Majesty, I stand ready to
reimburse said Dirk Willumhoog for the amount remaining above what he
shall have already received, out of my own private funds and estates."
"Never!" shouted Valdez, springing to his feet and clanking around the
room. "Dost thou take me for a natural-born fool, thou sneaking rascal!"
"The loss will be all your worship's," responded Dirk unmoved, "as the
glory would also be, could you but take the city by surprise. I am not
asking for glory. I do not wish my part in it to become generally
known. All I ask is the gold!" Valdez and Borgia consulted together for
a moment in low tones, and the result of their consultation seemed to be
the hasty decision that they must capitulate.
"Very well!" declared the general, "I will write as thou hast said, but
mark my words! Thou hadst better keep out of my way, Dirk Willumhoog,
when this transaction is completed!"
"And now, gentlemen, just one thing more," added Dirk when the writing
was finished and in his possession. "As an earnest of your good faith, I
require a thousand florins to be paid me at once!" More splutterings
from Borgia and explosions from Valdez ensued, but this was evidently
mere bluster, for after a due amount of bickering and bargaining, a
clinking of coins was heard, and money was counted out slowly and
reluctantly.
"There!" said Valdez, "Thou hast now every jot thou didst demand. Out
with thy secret, and be quick about it, for we have not all night to
spend!"
"This, then, is my story," answered Dirk. "I have discovered--never mind
how!--a passageway through a certain part of the wall of Leyden. Not a
soul knows of its existence save myself, and none could ever find it
unassisted, for I myself stumbled upon it quite by chance. There is room
for but one to pass through at a time, and the passage is dangerous. But
it would be an easy matter to introduce a regiment of soldiers through
it in the night, and in the morning the town would be yours for the
inhabitants are all too weak from starvation to make much resistance."
"But where _is_ this secret passage?" demanded Valdez.
"That will I not divulge till I lead the first soldier through it,"
replied Willumhoog shrewdly. "When does your worship think would be the
best and earliest opportunity to effect the entrance?"
Again Valdez and Borgia consulted together.
"To-day is the thirtieth of September," replied the general. "On the
night of October third we will have all in readiness, and thou shalt
fulfill thy promise. At the same time Colonel Borgia shall make an
assault upon the wall on the opposite side of the city, and thus draw
off the attention from our place of ingress." With a few more remarks
relative to the payment of the money, and a hasty and anything but
cordial leave-taking, the two Spaniards tramped out, mounted their
horses and rode away. The lights in the room below were extinguished,
the door was shut, and darkness and silence reigned throughout the
farmhouse. But up in their prison room, the two children clasped each
other and shuddered with horror at the dark crime that was soon to be
committed.
"It is frightful, Gysbert!" moaned Jacqueline. "Our beautiful city that
has so long and so bravely held out will be given over by this traitor
to the Spanish fury!"
"But what makes me feel the worst," raged Gysbert, "is that I could not
warn the burgomaster of that breach, as the Prince bade me! Why did I
not think to tell Mynheer Van der Werf before I went away! Why didst not
thou tell him, Jacqueline?"
"I somehow never thought of it when I was with him, and he never asked
me how Dirk got in. I think his mind was all but distracted with the
burden of the city's distress, so that he could give no heed to what
seemed then but a comparatively light matter. Oh, Gysbert! can we do
nothing about it? Surely God who led us to overhear this vile plot will
show us the way to foil it!"
"I think He will!" said Gysbert reverently. "And anyhow, I am going to
pray to-night that He show us some means of getting out of our prison
and warning the city. Wilt thou too, Jacqueline?"
"I will indeed!" answered the girl. "And before we go to bed we will
work long at the bars, for that seems our surest means of escape."
"Only three days!" groaned Gysbert. "I would that it were as many times
as far away. But in three days we can do much--if we work hard!"
WHEN THE WIND CHANGED