“I do trust you, signor,” she sobbed; “but I cannot forget the terrible thing I saw—my brother slain before my eyes! I can never forget that!”
“No wonder, dear child. You should be thankful you escaped from those men.”
“Until I am far away from Venice I shall not feel that I have escaped. Nicola Mullura will do everything in his power to place his bloody hands on me. I shall live in constant terror of him.”
“He shall never touch you!” cried Zenas. “Boys, she fears the wretch, Mullura, will get possession of her.”
“Teresa,” said Dick, using as good Italian as he could command, “we swear to defend you with our lives. You may depend on us.”
“You are such brave boys—such wonderfully brave boys!” murmured the girl.
“I can’t say it in dago talk,” put in Brad; “but you bet your boots, Teresa, that what my pard has promised, we’ll back up. You hear me shout!”
[CHAPTER XX.—THE OATH OF TERESA.]
Fearing she might do something rash in her distress and occasional spells of delirium, Dick and Brad took turns watching over Teresa that night.
The girl was given one of the three rooms taken by the professor and the boys in a private house. It was useless to urge her to retire. With the horror of what had happened, upon her, and in great fear that Mullura would find her, she kept her clothes on and slept on the outside of the bed. The door between that room and the adjoining one, in which the boys remained that they might be near her, was left slightly ajar at her request.