The young man, who can't possibly have been a day over thirty, was now within my grasp. Like a cat he had been, trying the ground lightly with his feet before setting them down on each step, looking around through half closed eyes, squinting in the lamp light that barely managed to find its way to the front of the church. Wary, but not wary enough. I had him.

I would soon have my answers out of him, but cagy creature he was, he was going to make me fight for each one. I would have asked no less of him. Does the panther delight in anything more than the chase? Could the wolves stomach the flesh of a deer that had gone down without a fight? Let him try his deceptions, I thought, and I would show him which of us was the man with whom one did not trifle.

Feet echoing on the bricks of that half forgotten street, we passed through the shadows that filled that place, the darkest of them offering the boy a promise of escape that would not be kept, as a brief shove from behind would remind him. Another few hundred feet brought us into the center of a square broad enough to be well lit. Finding an empty bench, I planted him on it, letting him collect himself for a moment before the explanations began.