She knocked, but there was no answer.  Then she drew from her pocket a piece of bent wire, and inserted it in the keyhole.

“We gypsies can enter where we will,” she said, beckoning Harry to enter as the door opened.  “Wait quiet here till I come for you.  The road will be clear then.”  So saying, she closed the door behind him, and again shot the bolt.

Harry felt extremely uncomfortable.  Should the owner of the room return, he would be taken for a thief, although, as he thought, looking round the room, there was little enough to steal.  It was a large room, with several truckle beds standing against the walls.  In the center was a table, upon which were some mugs, horns, and empty bottles, with some dirty cards scattered about.  The place smelled strongly of tobacco, and benches lying on the ground showed that the party of the night before had ended in a broil, further evidence to which was given by stains of blood on one of the beds, and by a rag saturated with blood, which lay beside it.  At one side of the room was a door, giving communication into the next apartment.  Scarcely had Harry entered when he heard voices there, and was surprised to find that the speakers were English.

“I tell you I’m sick of this,” one of the speakers said.  “I might be as well hanged at home as starved here.”

“You might enlist,” another voice said, in sneering tones.  “Gallant soldiers are welcome in the Low Countries.”

“You’d best keep your sneering tongue between your lips,” the other said angrily.  “If I don’t care for fighting in the field, I can use a knife at a pinch, as you know full well.  You will carry your gibes too far with me some day.  No,” he went on more calmly, after a pause, “I shall go back to England next week, after Marmaduke Harris and his gang have finished Oliver, The country will be turned so topsy-turvy that there will be no nice inquiry into bygones, and at any rate I can keep out of London.”

“Yes, it will be wise to do that,” the other said, since that little affair when the mercer and his wife in Cheap were found with their throats cut, and you—­”

“Fire and furies!  John Marlow, do you want three inches of steel in your ribs?”

“By no means!” the other answered.  “You have become marvelously straightlaced all at once.  As you know, I have been concerned in as many affairs as you have.  Aha!  I have had a merry time of it!”

“And may again,” the other said.  “Noll once dead, there will be good times for us again.  It is a pity that you and I were too well known to have a hand in the job.  Dost think there is any chance of a failure?”

“None,” the other replied.  “It is in good hands.  Black Harry has bribed a cook wench, who will open the back door.  They say he was to return to London this week, and if so Sunday is fixed for the affair.  Five days yet, and say another week for the news to get here.  In a fortnight we will be on our way to England.  There, I am thirsty, and we left the bottle in the next room.  We had a late night of it with the boys there.”