Since there was nothing to be gained by staying with him against his will, I shook hands in a friendly way, saying that I should go back to New York by land, it being nearer for me than the way we had come. The moment he was gone, however, I took after him and set myself to watch the tavern door. The person he had come to meet had evidently arrived before him. In two minutes the sailor came out again, accompanied by a boy. As they passed through a patch of moonlight I caught a glimpse of this second person. He was not a boy at all, but Van Volkenberg’s dwarf, Louis Van Ramm. They passed close to me and I followed them a short way into the woods, where they held a long whispered consultation; but I could not catch a word of what they said. At the end of their talk they parted company without returning to the tavern. The pirate went back to the boat the way he had come; the dwarf set out towards Van Volkenberg manor. I had no further interest in the sailor, and, though I expected little gain from following Van Ramm, I resolved to dog his footsteps. CHAPTER XII VAN VOLKENBERG’S WINDOW Louis Van Ramm continued his way towards the manor-house, walking rapidly, I following on the turf at the roadside. Suddenly I came upon the place where I had joined the high road in my retreat from the park the night before. Knowing that the path that led to this point was a short cut through the woods, I ran along it in the hope of finding some place of vantage, whence I could observe what went on outside the manor-house. When I reached the edge of the wood I saw the shadowy building, its front all shot with lighted windows. One of these windows was on the lower floor near the ground. I wondered whether it would offer me any advantage as a means of discovering what was going on inside the building. Some high bushes grew near it and in these I managed to conceal myself so near the window that I could see inside quite well. I presume that the fire of logs within made the room too hot, for the window was open, in spite of the chill wind that bit me to the bone. The patroon was sitting at a table in plain sight of the window. Between him and the door and facing him was the woman I had seen the night before on the terrace, evidently his daughter. “Go to your room, Miriam,” I heard him say to her. “I have no use for you here. As for this man Le Bourse, if you have any dealings with him I shall lock you up. Go. Do you hear me?” The girl did not move. She folded her arms across her breast, at the same time drawing herself up proudly. She was tall and slender, and of a fine, dignified figure. “Father,” she replied, “there is no use threatening me. You know that I am not a coward. If you do not intend to make some reparation to this man who has come to seek his sister, I shall. You can at least be kind to him. You know only too well that unkindness here hastened, perhaps caused, the poor girl’s unhappy death.”