"Bring me the acid that I may test the stuff.

No offence, stranger Pierre, but this is a wicked world, in which brass has passed for gold before to-day." The acid was brought and the ingots were tested at hazard, Pereira holding them up to the light of a lamp.
"They are good," he said.

"Now, Father, do your part." The priest Francisco stepped forward.

He was very pale and seemed terrified.

Leonard, watching him, wondered what had brought him into such company, for the man's face was good and even refined.
"Dom Antonio," said the priest in a soft girlish voice, "I protest against this.