“Halt, or I will shoot you.”

“That’s my brave lad,” commented the stranger.  “But don’t shoot.  It is I, your father.”

“Don’t come any nearer, I tell you!” responded the lad, threateningly.

“Why, I am not moving a muscle, lad; don’t be foolish.”

“What do you want here?” demanded Laczko.  “I will not let you do any harm to my mistress.”

Here Marie, who had recovered from her alarm, came forward, and laid her hand over her small defender’s eyes.

“Take down your gun, Laczko,” she commanded.  Then turning to the stranger asked:  “What do you want, my good man?”

For answer the man merely pronounced a name: 

“Sophie Botta.”

Without an instant’s hesitation, and although she shuddered involuntarily when her eyes fell on the stranger’s repulsive countenance, the young girl went close to his side, and said calmly: 

“What do you wish me to do?”

Satan Laczi held the thumb-ring toward her, and said: 

“The person who wears this sent me to fetch you away from here.  Are you ready to come with me at once?”

“I am,” replied Marie, who seemed unable to remove her eyes from the hideously ugly face before her.

“My master,” continued the ex-robber, “also bade me fetch a little steel casket.  Do you know where it is hidden?”

“The person who had it in her care has already taken it to your master,” was Marie’s response.

“Ah, she has taken it to him?” repeated Satan Laczi.  “Then it is all right.  I know now what I have to do.  My master bade me convey you to a place of concealment; but my face is not exactly the sort to win anybody’s confidence.  Besides, I know some one who can perform this errand as well as I. The way to Raab is clear.  Instead of taking you there myself, my wife will go with you.  I think you would rather have her for a companion?”

“Yes, I think I would rather go with a woman,” diplomatically assented Marie.

“As an additional protection, take this little lad with you.”  Here the ex-robber laid his hand on his son’s shoulder, and looked proudly down on him.  “His heart is already in the right place.  And then he is not a wicked rascal like his father.”

He was silent a moment, then added:  “But I intend to reform.  When my master has spoken with the woman to whom he intrusted his treasures, and if she has not betrayed him, then I know where he will be to-morrow.  And Satan Laczi will be there, too!  Then I and my comrades will show them what we can do.  But come, we must make haste, and get on as far as possible while the moon is shining.”

“But I am not properly clad for a journey,” interposed Marie.

“My wife brought a nice warm bunda to wrap you in; it is in the carriage out yonder,” returned the ex-robber.

“One word first:  you are acquainted with the man who made the metal screen in my apartments.  Could you see him?”