Part 32 (1/2)
”Beppo and `The Thrush.'”
”That is Beppo Fiola and Gino Merlo--eh?” she remarked. ”I thought Gino had been arrested in Sarzana.”
”So he was,” replied the man, ”but he escaped. He is wanted, but the present moment is not an exactly opportune one for his arrest, signorina.”
”And they mean evil?”
”Decidedly. The Signor Waldron should be warned.”
”How did you discover this, Pietro?” she asked, standing with him in the deep shadow of a disused granary.
”Signorina, a man of my profession has various channels of information,”
was his polite but rather ambiguous reply, his voice entirely altered, for he now spoke in an educated manner. Hitherto he had spoken in the dialect peculiar to the valley of the Tiber, but his last sentence was that of an educated man.
”Ah! I know, Signor Olivieri,” she said; ”you are a past-master in the art of disguise to come out here and live as a _contadino_.”
”For the purpose of obtaining information every ruse is admissable, signorina. This is not the first occasion in my career by many when I have posed as a peasant.”
”Curious that Signor Enrico is so friendly with Velia, is it not?” she asked.
”Exactly my thought,” replied Pietro Olivieri, the renowned private detective of Genoa, for such he was; ”there is some devil's work afoot, but whether it is in connection with the matter we are investigating I cannot yet convince myself. As a field-labourer in madame's service I have been ever on the alert. Fortunately no one has yet suspected me-- for this place is, as you well know, a veritable hot-bed of anarchy and crime; a nest which contains some of the worst and most desperate characters in the whole of Italy. Therefore if I betrayed myself, I fear I should not return to Rome alive.”
”But have you no fear?” she asked anxiously. ”Not while I exercise ordinary caution. Here, I am Pietro Bondi, a simple, hard-working _contadino_. I take my wine like a man. I gossip to the women, and I interfere with n.o.body. At first when I came here my presence aroused suspicion, but that has, fortunately, now died down.”
”You will watch Enrico?”
”Certainly.”
”I wonder what his object is in returning here to Borghetto?”
”In order to meet Velia.”
”He could have met her more easily in Rome.”
”Not if it chanced to be against his interests to be seen in Rome.
Remember he is well-known there.”
”So you think he got off the train here instead of going on to the capital?”
”Yes. To see the girl Velia who came here to-night--to meet him and the others.”
”The others?” she repeated inquiringly.
”Yes--`The Thrush' and the others.”
”To form a plot against the Englishman?” she gasped.
”Exactly, signorina. The Signor Waldron should be warned at once. Will you do so--or shall I send him an anonymous letter?”
”I will see him to-morrow; but--but what can I say without exposing the truth. Come, Signor Pietro, you are a good one at inventing stories.”