A cab, driven by a member of the brotherhood, had crawled slowly after the two men. As soon as the driver saw what had happened, he drove rapidly up. The two powerful men lifted the inert body into the vehicle. He was partially recovered when they halted at the house where the tribunal of five was sitting to pronounce judgment on the man who had dared to thwart their plans. They locked him in a room adjoining that in which Contraras was presiding over the deliberations of his five trusted lieutenants. After locking him in securely, Somoza went to report the matter to Moreno. His colleague, the other Biscayan fisherman, remained on guard outside the closed door, for fear of untoward accidents. Rossett was a powerful man. Contraras, with his fine intellectual face, his hair in places turning from iron-grey to white, looked the embodiment of dignified justice. Perhaps, in his warped and fanatical mind, he believed he was. He spoke in his most judicial accents. "Nobody shall ever say that he has not had a fair trial, when brought up before the tribunal of the brotherhood. We will wait an hour, if it is necessary, for this misguided young man to recover his senses." Moreno, who had arrived the last of the party, looked round with a sudden start. "Where is our comrade, Violet Hargrave?" Contraras hastened to explain. "Ah! of course you have not heard. Alvedero went to bring her here, according to arrangement. He found her stretched on the sofa, motionless and inanimate. He thinks she is in a dying condition. He is going round to inquire after these proceedings are over." "This is very sad," said Moreno, in his gravest manner. "And she is such a nice woman personally, and so devoted to the Cause, through the influence of Jaques. I wonder,"--he cast an inquiring look at Alvedero--"if, by any chance, she drinks or drugs. Many apparently nice women do!" Alvedero shook his big head. "I doubt it. I should say a seizure of some sort. Perhaps her heart is weak. She looks a little fragile." Moreno, for obvious reasons, did not pursue the subject. Violet Hargrave's absence had evidently excited no comment, no suspicion. A quarter of an hour had elapsed. Somoza was deputed to enter the locked room and ascertain the condition of the prisoner. Contraras was resolved to proceed justly, according to his interpretation of the word justice. Somoza returned after his inspection, and reported that the effects of the saturated handkerchief had worn off. Guy Rossett was in a sense clothed in his right mind. He was fit to face the tribunal. The members of the conclave assumed masks. Somoza had worn a mask when he had entered the locked room. Whatever happened, it was essential that Guy Rossett should not be able to identify any one of them.