“Do you know, sir, that there is a familiar look about you since this last change. I think I must have met you before somewhere,” said Fredrich Weimher, regarding his companion earnestly. “No, I think not,” he returned, with a smile. “But you may be able to account for that familiarity when I tell you who I really am. Come nearer, for I would not have even a breath of what I am about to relate heard, before the time comes for me to reveal myself. My name is——” He dropped his voice to the lowest whisper, and Fredrich Weimher sprang to his feet, startled and amazed. “Hush!” said his companion; “you have not yet heard all.” Then he continued to speak in low, rapid tones for nearly half an hour. When he had finished, the young man sat looking at him in wondering silence for a moment, then grasping his hand, he shook it warmly, while a smile of sympathetic triumph suffused his face as he exclaimed: “I see it all now! I understand! Oh, I almost envy you your triumph; and yet there must be something of bitterness in it. But I trust all is not as bad as you anticipate, and that it will all end well.” “Heaven grant it!” returned the strange man, earnestly, while a tear for a moment dimmed his fine eye. “But we must to work at once,” he added, with energy, “for they will make quick business now they have the game in their hands, you may be sure, and the odds are against us.” “How so? It seems to me that it will be a very easy matter to raise a company of daring men, enter their den, and release the captives,” said Fredrich. “Yes, but there is the trouble. How are we going to enter it?” “Do you not know the way?” asked the young man, in surprise. “I know the entrance by the way of the water well enough, but not that by land. But it will be necessary for a party to enter both ways, for there are so many passages and secret doors that they will escape us unless they find themselves between two fires. My plan is for you to go one way and I the other, and if no alarm is given before we reach the principal room, to station a guard before each entrance to it; and then it will be impossible for them to resist us.” “But why before this particular room?” “Because I heard it hinted that the ceremony is to be performed at seven to-night, and in that case every one will be there to witness it.” “Heavens! we have got to work with a will. I think your plan is excellent, though I know nothing of the interior of this wonderful place; but I can solve the difficulty about the land entrance easily enough.” “You!” returned Ronald Edgerton, amazed. We must continue to know this man of triple character by that name, at least for the present. “Yes, I, for strange though it may seem, I know of one way to enter that place, and I believe it is the principal one too. I will tell you how it happened: