Once there, he dared not move.

Thence he saw and heard what followed.
The man pinned against the wall, with the point of a knife flickering before his eyes, begged piteously for his life.
"Then silence!" Basterga answered--for the foremost who had entered was he.

"A word and you die!" "Better let me finish him at once!" Grio growled.

The prisoner's face was ashen, his eyes were starting from his head.

"Dead men give no alarms." "Mercy! Mercy!" the man gasped.
"Ay, ay, let him live," Basterga said good-naturedly.