"How far have you got?" asked Volterra, with a little less interest than might have been expected.
"I am positively sure that there is an inner chamber, where I expected to find it," Malipieri answered, with perfect truth. "Perhaps we can get into it when you come."
"I hope so," said the Baron, watching the other's face from the corner of his eye.
"I have made a curious discovery in the course of the excavation," Malipieri continued. "The pillar of masonry which you showed me is hollow after all. It was the shaft of an oubliette which must have opened somewhere in the upper part of the house. There is a well under it."
"Full of water?"
"No. It is dry. We shall have to pass through it to get to the inner chamber. You shall see for yourself—a very singular construction."
"Was there nothing in it?"
"Several skeletons," answered Malipieri indifferently. "One of the skulls has a rusty knife driven through it."
"Dear me!" exclaimed the Baron, shaking his fat head. "Those Conti were terrible people! We must not tell the Baroness these dreadful stories. They would upset her nerves."
Malipieri had not supposed Volterra's wife to be intensely sensitive.
He moved, as if he meant to take his leave presently.