Through a narrow street, lighted by the lanterns which hung before the
doors of the few wine shops that were still open--for the hour was
late--a man, wrapped in a hooded cloak, went stumbling over the dogs
that were asleep in the middle of the way, and not unfrequently over
the watchmen lying upon the mats before the closed entrances to the
bazaars they were guarding. He entered one wine shop after another,
muttering an oath of disappointment as he withdrew from each. At
length he turned into an alley, which seemed like a mere crevice in
the compact mass of houses, and threaded his way between windowless
and doorless walls, until the passage widened into a small and filthy
court. At the extreme rear of this a lamp was just flickering with its
exhausted oil, and only sufficed to show him a doorway. Rapping gently
he called in Italian:
"Pedro! Giovan!"
The door was opened by a short, stout man with bullet head, who spread
himself across the entrance and peered into the face of the late
comer. Two villainous looking men stared through the lurid glare of a
rush light on a low table, at which, squatted on the ground, they were
playing dice. A purse or pouch of gold thread, decorated with some
device wrought with pearls and various precious stones, lay beside
them.
"Ah, the gentleman from Genoa!" exclaimed one. "You are quite welcome
to our castle. Ricardo, where is the stool? Well! if you can't find
it, lie down, and let the gentleman sit on your head."
"You appear to be in luck, Pedro, if I am to judge from the purse
yonder," said the visitor. "Your lady has taken you back to her
affection, and given you this as a love token, I suppose."
"I'll tell you the secrets of my lady's chamber, Signior, when you
tell me those of yours," replied Pedro.
"Perhaps," interposed Giovan, "the gentleman would have us help him in
to the secrets of his lady's chamber. How now, Signior Alexis, have
you trapped a new beauty so soon in Byzantium?"
"Let's throw for this before we talk," interposed Ricardo, holding the
purse in one hand and a dice cup in the other. "One business at a
time."
The three men threw. The stake fell to Ricardo, who thrust the rich
prize into his dirty pocket, where a third of the contents of the
purse had previously been deposited.
"May I see the little bag?" asked Alexis.
"No!" was the surly response.
"You see, Signior," interposed Giovan, in an attempt to mitigate the
rudeness of his comrade, "You see it was a trust from--from a dead
man, who was afraid to take it with him to purgatory, lest the fire
might tarnish it. So we keep it for him until he comes back. And we
are still in the trust business, Signior! Our credit is without a
stain. You know it was just a suspicion of our integrity--we would not
have our honor even suspected by the police--that led us to leave
Genoa. Will you trust us with any little business?"
"Do you know the Albanian officer in the emperor's guards?" asked
Alexis.
"No, and want to know nothing about officers of any sort," growled
Giovan.
"Ay!" interposed Ricardo, "the red-topped fellow, with a body like
Giovan's, and the neck the right height to come under my sword arm?"
making the gesture of cutting off one's head with a sabre. "Does he
disturb you?"
"Yes!"
"It will be worth a hundred ducats," said Giovan.
"A hundred and fifty," said Ricardo; and, lowering his voice to the
others, added, "I need fifty, and I would take only my even share."
"You shall have it," said Alexis, counting out the gold. "If you
deceive me, you know that one word from me here in Byzantium will cost
you your heads. Good night!"
When he had gone, Giovan said in low voice:
"I say, Pedro, we will divide a thousand ducats out of this."
"How?" exclaimed the two.
"The young officer is brother to the lady at the grand chamberlain's.
She will pay heavy ransom if we deliver him instead of--" drawing his
finger across his throat. "Of course we should have to leave
Byzantium. But Ricardo and I have concluded that it were best to be
gone anyhow; for the people here are so poor that our business does
not thrive. This purse once held ducats, but when we took it, it had
only silver bits. We pocket-bankers need better constituency."
"Yes, we had better get out of this," said Pedro. "General Giustiniani
has come to live in Galata.[69] He got his weasel-eyes on me yesterday
as I was doing a little business by the old wharf. That man knows too
much, he does. But he'll never get me on the galley benches again. I'd
crawl like a mud turtle on the bottom of Marmora before I'd go under
the hatches a second time. I like freedom and fresh air, I do--"
blowing out of his face the thick smoke emitted by the wick floating
on the surface of a saucer of oil.
"Right!" said Giovan. "Let's get out of this if we can do so with
enough gold to pay our royal travelling expenses. But if we spare the
neck of that fellow who is in Signior Alexis' way, where will we keep
him that Alexis will not know it?"
"Our mansion here is hardly commodious enough for so distinguished and
lively a guest as the young officer will be likely to be," said
Ricardo, scraping the spiders' webs from the low ceiling of the room
with his cap.
"Try the old water vault," suggested Pedro.
"Good!" said Ricardo, "when the Albanian goes to the walls, as he does
every day, he will pass near to the opening."
FOOTNOTE:
[69] A suburb of Constantinople, occupied by the Genoese.