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"Mary so named it, not I It is an aray stone beneath the cross This stone is a

draconite, taken, at the risk of life, froroes"

A half contemptuous smile curled the lips of the old man as he

contemplated the talisnor

Geronimo, to have read in Pliny curious details of the draconite and its

extraordinary powers, but I also reets to tell us the inherent qualities of the stone Alas! signor,

would you trust in this taliser of the assassin? The people of the South have a strange

piety: in their superstition they confound what is holy with things which

owe their efficacy, if they possess any, to the conjurations of

sorcerers"

The young noble colored slightly, and replied: "You are mistaken, sir, as

far as I am concerned For my justification allow riht of Good

Friday upon the tomb of our Lord at Jerusalem; but I will be candid, and

say to you that I do not consider it possessed of the power to preserve er And yet I alear it with the firm and unshaken

conviction that it will protect me in a critical hour froed to your deceased parents," said Mr Van de Werve,

struck by the singular explanation of the young man

"No, sir," replied Geronimo; "this amulet is to ave ly tell you how the amulet fell into my hands, and why I believe in

its power to protectstory"

"I would, nevertheless, be much pleased if you would satisfy my

curiosity," said the old noble

"If you desire it," replied Geronimo, "I will coo, when I undertook for the first tie froerian pirates, and

carried as a slave to Barbary I was sold to a Moorish lord, who made me

work in the fields until my uncle should send the ransom which would

restore ht as

appointed h,

and driven on by blows from a heavy stick She was a Christian slave,

whose eyes had been put out in wanton cruelty I learned that she was an

Italian by birth, a native of a se in the environs of Porto

Fiero, a seaport not far from Genoa She had no relatives who could pay