Here were two poor men,
working hard perhaps for their daily bread with little hillocks of
seductive gold piled up all around them, gold of which everyone is
enamoured in the earth above them, gold for which so many men gladly
give up everything, even to their hope in Heaven!
Now and again a third man comes in and pitches the gold into a linen
sack with a wooden shovel.
"Let us stamp a few ducats ourselves by way of souvenirs," said Fatia
Negra. Anicza assenting, the workmen stepped aside, and Fatia Negra and
the girl placed themselves on either side of the leaden bullets on the
turning bar.
The Mask bade his sweetheart be careful to avoid the recoil of the
machine for should the handle hit her the blow might prove fatal,
whereupon the girl, burning to show off her great strength, did not wait
for the end of the bar to recover its normal position, but seizing the
iron rod when it was only half way round, tore it back again, with the
result that the steel clapper did not cast the gold piece between the
matrices in the usual way and it thus received a double impression,
being stamped with a two-fold figure of the Mother of God on one side
and a two-fold figure of the royal profile on the other.
Old Onucz rushed towards Anicza and angrily tore her away:
"You little fool, be off!" cried he, "you will spoil the machine, it is
not for the likes of you.
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