“So you brought them to England?”
“Si, Signor. It is spoken of as a land of justice and rich nobility who buy these things at the highest prices. Also my speaking a little of the language would serve us here.”
“I suppose you have the coins for disposal then? You can show them to me?”
“My husband retains them. I will take you, but you must first give parola d’onore of an English Signor not to betray us, or to speak of the circumstance to another.”
Carrados had already foreseen this eventuality and decided to accept it. Whether a promise exacted on the plea of treasure trove would bind him to respect the despoilers of the British Museum was a point for subsequent consideration. Prudence demanded that he should investigate the offer at once and to cavil over Madame Ferraja’s conditions would be fatal to that object. If the coins were, as there seemed little reason to doubt, the proceeds of the robbery, a modest ransom might be the safest way of preserving irreplaceable treasures, and in that case Carrados could offer his services as the necessary intermediary.
“I give you the promise you require, Madame,” he accordingly declared.
“It is sufficient,” assented Madame. “I will now take you to the spot. It is necessary that you alone should accompany me, for my husband is so distraught in this country, where he understands not a word of what is spoken, that his poor spirit would cry ‘We are surrounded!’ if he saw two strangers approach the house. Oh, he is become most dreadful in his anxiety, my husband. Imagine only, he keeps on the fire a cauldron of molten lead and he would not hesitate to plunge into it this treasure and obliterate its existence if he imagined himself endangered.”
“So,” speculated Carrados inwardly. “A likely precaution for a simple vine-grower of Calabria! Very well,” he assented aloud, “I will go with you alone. Where is the place?”
Madame Ferraja searched in the ancient purse that she discovered in her rusty handbag and produced a scrap of paper.
“People do not understand sometimes my way of saying it,” she explained. “Sette, Herringbone——”