"But I would like to ask, sir, what induced you to choose the courtyard of this house to enjoy it ?" "Induced ?" asked the Swiss in astonishment; then, looking the other in the face with defiant sharpness, he added scornfully: "I am warming the chain because it suits me to do so." "You are allowed the pleasure," returned Wolff in an irritated tone; "nay, I can understand that night birds of your sort find no better amusement.

Still, it seems to me that a knight who wishes to keep iron hot might attain his object better in another way." "Why, of course," cried Heinz Schorlin, springing swiftly to his feet with rare elasticity.

"It gives a pleasant warmth when blade strikes blade or the hot blood wets them.

I am no friend to darkness, and it seems to me, sir, as if we were standing in each other's light here." "There our opinions concur for the second time this lovely night," quietly replied the patrician's son, conscious of his unusual strength and skill in fencing, with a slight touch of scorn.

"Like you, I am always ready to cross blades with another; only, the public street is hardly the fitting place for it." "May the plague take you!" muttered the Swiss in assent to Wolff's opinion.