"Have you seen Salvatore, signore?"

"No—yes."

"You have seen him?"

"Not to speak to. When I came down the cottage was shut up. I waited—"

"You hid, signore?"

Maurice's face flushed. An angry word rose to his lips, but he checked it and laughed, remembering that he had to deal with a boy, and that Gaspare was devoted to him.

"Well, I waited among the trees—birbante!"

"And you saw Salvatore?"

"He came out and went down to the fishing."

"Salvatore is a terrible man. He used to beat his wife Teresa."