the tin-smithes boy, had told him about, and he
discovered that these lads were better known in
these haunts than was realised in their homes. In
return for a trifle they told him whereabouts in the
town he would find gambling-dens, or where to
look for the receivers of stolen goods. Those were
the places to look for the young men who might be
able to tell him something. He, who had never
been in an ale-house, went into bars where the smell
revolted him and the tobacco smoke made him
cough. At first he was stared at when he ordered
lemonade, but when he began to cross-question the
bar-tender, the man at once realised what he wanted.
In an ale-house in the Wood Market the waiter
brought a certain Kleuns up to him, who said he
had heard that Floris was in Amsterdam. He went
with him to another beer-house in New Kruisstraat,
where it looked very clean and there was white sand
on the floor, but when he saw two painted women
coming out of a side-door, Werendonk felt ashamed
to be sitting there. Nevertheless he waited until
the other youth came, who was supposed to be
a friend of Floris, and who said that he had
had a post card from him from Hoorn, that was
all he knew, but he thought he was probably with
Blusser. Werendonk asked the young man to go
with him to Amsterdam to show him the place
where his nephew might be. He didn't see the
wink exchanged between the two.