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Master Gurloes, whoe when I was a boy, was unquestionably a coward During the period when Drotte was captain of apprentices, Roche and I used to alternate, turn and turn about, in serving Master Gurloes and Master Palaeht, when Master Gurloes had retired to his cabin but instructed an to confide in er's daughter and quite good-looking" As an apprentice I had few dealings with clients; I shook my head "She is to be abused"

I had no idea what he reatest disgrace that can befall a woman Or a man either To be abused By the torturer" He touched his chest and threw back his head to look at e a man; if he had worn a shirt or jacket (which of course he never did), one would have been tempted to believe it padded

"Yes, Master"

"Aren't you going to offer to do it forfellow like you, full of juice Don't tell me you're not hairy yet"

At last I understood what he meant, and I told him that I had not realized it would be perave the order, I would certainly obey

"I iine you would She's not bad, you know But tall, and I don't like theeneration or so back, you h only we know all that means Want to do it?"

He held out his cup and I poured "If you wish ht I had never possessed a woman

"You can't I must What if I were to be questioned? Then too, I uild for twenty years, and I've never falsified papers I suppose you think I can't do it"

The thought had never crossed ht still retain soard to Master Palae lens made him seem like one who had been decrepit always

"Well, look here," Master Gurloes said, and heaved himself out of his chair He was one of those who can ell and speak clearly even when they are very drunk, and he strode over to a cabinet quite confidently, though I thought for ato drop the blue porcelain jar he took down

"This is a rare and potent drug" He took the lid off and showed me a dark broder "It never fails You'll have to use it soht to know about it Just take as ernail on the end of a knife, you follow me? If you take too much, you won't be able to appear in public for a couple of days"

I said, "I'll remember, Master"

"Of course it's a poison They all are, and this is the best - a little ain until the es, understand?"

"Perhaps you'd better have Brother Corbinian weigh the dose, Master" Corbinian was our apothecary; I was terrified that Master Gurloes ht s a spoonful before my eyes

"Me? I don't need it" Conteed it down on its shelf in the cabinet

"That's well, Master"

"Besides," (he winked at me), "I'll have this" From his sabretache he took an iron phallus It was about a span and a half long and had a leather thong through the end opposite the tip

It must seem idiotic to you who read this, but for an instant I could not ierated realisn I had a wild notion that the wine had rendered him childish, as a little boy is who supposes there is no essential difference between his wooden h

"'Abuse,' that's their word That, you see, is where they've left us an out" He had slapped the iron phallus against his palesture, now that I think of it, that the man-ape who had threatened me had ripped by revulsion

But even that revulsion was not the emotion I would feel now in the same situation I did not sympathize with the client, because I did not think of her at all; it was only a sort of repugnance for Master Gurloes, ith all his bulk and great strength was forced to rely on the broder, and still worse, on the iron phallus I had seen, an object that ht have been sawed from a statue, and perhaps had been Yet I saw hi had to be done immediately for fear the order could not otherwise be carried out before the client died, act at once, and without powder or phallus, and without difficulty

Master Gurloes was a coward then Still, perhaps his cowardice was better than the courage I would have possessed in his position, for courage is not always a virtue I had been courageous (as such things are counted) when I had fought the e was no more than a mixture of foolhardiness, surprise, and desperation; now, in the tunnel, when there was no longer any cause for fear, I was afraid and nearly dashed ; but I did not pause or even slacken speed before I saw the opening before ht Then, indeed, I halted; and considering ed edge ofher overwith the toes of es that had supported ained the third when two quarrels struck the rock near ed its point in so hite fire I recall how astonished I was, and also how I hoped, in the few moments before the next struck nearer still and nearly blindeda new projectile to the string when cocked, and thus are so swift to shoot again When the third exploded against the stone, I knew they were, and dropped before the ain

There was, as I ought to have known there would be, a deep pool where the strea, but since I was already wet it did no har to my face and arms

There could be no question here of cannily re below the surface The water seizedood luck, was some distance from the rock-face, and I was able to watch my attackers from behind as I clambered onto the bank They and the wo at the place where the cascade fell

As I drew Terht, I called, "Over here, Agia"

I had guessed earlier that it was she, but as she turned (liht It was a terrible face to h for all her self-depreciation so lovely) because the sight of it meant that Thecla was surely dead

Thehis arbalest to his shoulder before he pulled the trigger I ducked and cut his legs from under him, while the other's quarrel whizzed over htened up again, the second ia was quicker,a cut at my neck with an athaed her first stroke and parried her second, though Ter My own attack made her bound back

"Get behind him," she called to the second arbalestier "I can front hi open and his point side