'Mysterious, aye! That's what plagues me. They must be fed from outside.'
'That is quite impossible!' Carmagnola was emphatic. As Facino's lieutenant, it fell to his duty to see that the cordon was properly maintained.
'Yet what is the alternative,' wondered Bellarion, 'unless they are eating one another?'
Carmagnola's blue eyes flashed upon him almost malevolently for this further reflection upon his vigilance.
'You set me riddles,' he said disdainfully.
'And you're not good at riddles, Francesco,' drawled Bellarion, meeting malice with malice. 'I should have remembered it.'
Carmagnola heaved himself up. 'Now, by the Bones of God, what do you mean?'
The ears of the ill-humoured Facino had caught a distant sound. 'Quiet, you bellowing calf!' he snapped. 'Listen! Listen! Who comes at that breakneck speed?'
It was a hot, breathless night of July, and the windows stood wide to invite a cooling draught. As the four men, so bidden, grew attentive, they caught from the distance the beat of galloping hooves.
'It's not from Alessandria,' said Koenigshofen.