He instantly dug a great hole in a haystack that stood near the house. Gianetto crept into it, and the child covered him so as to let him have a little air to breathe, but so that it was impossible to suspect that the hay concealed a man. He conceived also an ingeniously crafty idea, worthy of a savage. He took a cat and her kittens and placed them on the haystack, to make it appear that it had not been disturbed recently. Then, noticing marks of blood on the path near the house, he carefully covered them with dirt, and, when that was done, lay down again in the sun with the most perfect tranquillity.
A few minutes later, six men in brown uniform with yellow facings commanded by an adjutant halted in front of Mateo’s door. This adjutant was distantly related to the Falcones. (It is well known that in Corsica degrees of kinship are followed out much farther than elsewhere.) His name was Tiodoro Gamba; he was an active officer, greatly feared by the bandits, several of whom he had already run to earth.
“Good-day, my young cousin,” he said to Fortunato, walking to where he lay; “how you’ve grown! Did you see a man pass by just now?”
“Oh! I ain’t as tall as you yet, cousin,” replied the child, with a stupid expression.
“That will come. But tell me, didn’t you see a man pass?”
“Didn’t I see a man pass?”
“Yes, a man with a black velvet pointed cap and a red and yellow embroidered jacket?”
“A man in a pointed cap and a red and yellow embroidered jacket?”
“Yes; answer at once, and don’t repeat my questions.”
“Monsieur le curé passed our door this morning, on his horse Piero. He asked me how papa was and I told him——”