thee to a more fitting spot."

The words were scarcely uttered when Gino found himself standing in the
middle of the court alone. The masked stranger had passed swiftly on,
and was at the bottom of the Giant's Stairs ere the gondolier had time
for reflection. He ascended with a light and rapid step, and without
regarding the halberdier, he approached the first of three or four
orifices which opened into the wall of the palace, and which, from the
heads of the animal being carved in relief around them, had become
famous as the receptacles of secret accusations under the name of the
Lion's Mouths. Something he dropped into the grinning aperture of the
marble, though what, the distance and the obscurity of the gallery
prevented Gino from perceiving; and then his form was seen gliding like
a phantom down the flight of massive steps.

Gino had retired towards the arch of the water-gate, in expectation that
the stranger would rejoin him within its shadows; but, to his great
alarm, he saw the form darting through the outer portal of the palace
into the square of St. Mark. It was not a moment ere Gino, breathless
with haste, was in chase. On reaching the bright and gay scene of the
piazza, which contrasted with the gloomy court he had just quitted like
morning with night, he saw the utter fruitlessness of further pursuit.
Frightened at the loss of his master's signet, however, the indiscreet
but well intentioned gondolier rushed into the crowd, and tried in vain
to select the delinquent from among a thousand masks.

"Harkee, Signore," uttered the half-distracted gondolier to one, who,
having first examined his person with distrust, evidently betrayed a
wish to avoid him, "if thou hast sufficiently pleased thy finger with my
master's signet, the occasion offers to return it."