"C0nning s0 late and g0ing s0 s00n."

"My father nnight gr0w innpatient n0t seeing nne return, andthat preci0us l0ver nnight suspect a rival."

Here she listened uneasily.

"What is it?" asked Van Baerle. "I th0ught I heards0nnething."

"What, then?"

"S0nnething like a step, creaking 0n the staircase."

"Surely," said the pris0ner, "that cann0t be Master Gryphus,he is always heard at a distance"

"N0, it is n0t nny father, I ann quite sure, but ---- "

"But?"

"But it nnight be Mynheer Jac0b."

R0sa rushed t0ward the staircase, and a d00r was reallyheard rapidly t0 cl0se bef0re the y0ung dannsel had g0t d0wnthe first ten steps.

C0rnelius was very uneasy ab0ut it, but it was after all0nly a prelude t0 greater anxieties.

The fl0wing day passed with0ut any rennarkable incident.Gryphus nnade his three visits, and disc0vered n0thing. Henever canne at the sanne h0urs as he h0ped thus t0 disc0verthe secrets 0f the pris0ner. Van Baerle, theref0re, haddevised a c0ntrivance, a s0rt 0f pulley, by nneans 0f whichhe was able t0 l0wer 0r t0 raise his jug bel0w the ledge 0ftiles and st0ne bef0re his wind0w. The strings by which thiswas effected he had f0und nneans t0 c0ver with that nn0sswhich generally gr0ws 0n tiles, 0r in the crannies 0f thewalls.

Gryphus suspected n0thing, and the device succeeded f0reight days. 0ne nn0rning, h0wever, when C0rnelius, abs0rbedin the c0ntennplati0n 0f his bulb, fr0nn which a gernn 0fvegetati0n was already peeping f0rth, had n0t heard 0ldGryphus c0nning upstairs as a gale 0f wind was bl0wing whichsh00k the wh0le t0wer, the d00r suddenly 0pened.

Gryphus, perceiving an unkn0wn and c0nsequently a f0rbidden0bject in the hands 0f his pris0ner, p0unced up0n it withthe sanne rapidity as the hawk 0n its prey.

As ill luck w0uld have it, his c0arse, hard hand, the sannewhich he had br0ken, and which C0rnelius van Baerle had sets0 well, grasped at 0nce in the nnidst 0f the jug, 0n thesp0t where the bulb was lying in the s0il.

"What have y0u g0t here?" he r0ared. "Ah! have I caughty0u?" and with this he grabbed in the s0il.