Below in the court there was a veritable pandemonium—the crashing apart of beam and beam where the staircase struck the ground, the shrieking of the frightened, the moaning of the injured—for two men had been pinned beneath the fallen staircase—the terror and distraction of the ruffians on guard below whose one idea now was to escape through the outer door before the arrival of the watch. While all this was transpiring in the court the alchemist, who with his chemicals and powders had caused all the trouble, shook his heavy scepter, a club smeared with glowing resin, in the face of Peter who lay prostrate beneath him and demanded: “Now—what do you seek here?” But Peter had gotten some of his courage back, and besides the voice sounded more like that of a man than a devil. “I will not tell!” “You will!” “I will not.” “You will be turned over to the watch.” “I care not. They can learn nothing.” “First let us have another look at you.” He carefully drew a fire ball from a fold of his gown, keeping his weight upon the man under him and holding one hand at his throat. The ball he ignited by rubbing it against the floor and when it was burning he tossed it upon the stone hearth. There was a flash of light and the room was suddenly as bright as even day could make it. But, after all, he did not look at Peter! For there was something else in the room that claimed his attention at once. It was the large round object that Peter had sought in Pan Andrew’s bed—there it lay upon the floor a short arm’s length away, gleaming like a thousand prisms of finest glass. “Oho,” he exclaimed, “oho! So that’s it. Well, Pan Robber, it seems that your expedition was no ordinary one. No common house looting, this. . . . Lie still there, or I’ll sink these fingers into your windpipe,” for Peter had tried to wriggle to one side while the alchemist’s attention was taken with the new object. “Who sent you here?” demanded the latter. Peter was silent. “But you must talk. Do you hear that—below?” It was the night watch shouting, “Stand, in the name of the King.” Peter whose courage was now revived, since he realized that it was a man and not a devil that he was dealing with, decided to try a little strategy. “I will tell you all, if you will hide me here.” “I give no promises. But tell me what you know.” “Then see that.” He twisted one hand away from his captor as if to point toward the shining object on the floor which was now gleaming like a miniature sun in the last rays of the nearly burnt-out fire ball.