"This is the third spring you have ordered, and each time from a different locksmith." "It is a secret known only to my master and myself." "A secret ?" said Bernardo.

"Springs, a secret! What can it mean ?" "Come with me, and I will show you.

The signor may be angry if he chooses, I don't care.

But, Bernardo, you must be as silent as one deaf and dumb." He conducted his companion to a room, and throwing open the door showed him a large arm-chair, which in form was like the other chairs around, excepting that from each arm extended two bent springs.
"This is what I have worked at, without stopping, for four days.

I wish the bewitched chair to the devil! I have already exhausted myself; but the new spring is good, and in a few minutes I will have finished." Bernardo examined attentively the unfinished chair, and looked frightened.
"Heavens!" he exclaimed, "a chair for a trap! Do you entrap men here ?" Julio nodded his head affirmatively.
Pale from anxiety, Bernardo muttered: "May God preserve me! What crime is in contemplation?
Does our master know anything of this terrible piece of furniture ?" "Was it not from him that you received the order to bring me the springs ?" The humpbacked man made the sign of the cross, and muttered a few indistinct words.
Suddenly Julio laughed immoderately, and slapping him on the shoulder exclaimed: "Foolish boy! he already sees a victim in this chair, and the blood flowing as freely as in some old woman's story.