"Get up, Signore! Get up! You are wanted quickly!" It was Stefanone.
Dalrymple struck a light, for he had a supply of matches with him, a convenience of modern life not at that time known in Subiaco, except as an expensive toy, though already in use in Rome. As he was, he opened the door. Stefanone came in, dressed in his shirt and breeches, pale with excitement.
"You must dress yourself, Signore," he said briefly, as he glanced at the Scotchman, and then set down the small tin and gla.s.s lantern he carried.
"What is the matter?" inquired Dalrymple, yawning, and stretching his great white arms over his head, till his knuckles struck the low ceiling; for he was a tall man.
"The matter is that they have killed Sor Tommaso," answered the peasant.
Dalrymple uttered an exclamation of surprise and incredulity.
"It is as I say," continued Stefanone. "They found him lying across the way, in the street, with knife-wounds in him, as many as you please."
"That is horrible!" exclaimed Dalrymple, turning, and calmly tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his lamp, which burned badly at first.
"Then dress yourself, Signore!" said Stefanone, impatiently. "You must come!"
"Why? If he is dead, what can I do?" asked the northern man, coolly. "I am sorry. What more can I say?"
"But he is not dead yet!" Stefanone was growing excited. "They have taken him--"
"Oh! he is alive, is he?" interrupted the Scotchman, dashing at his clothes, as though he were suddenly galvanized into life himself. "Then why did you tell me they had killed him?" he asked, with a curious, dry calmness of voice, as he instantly began to dress himself. "Get some clean linen, Signor Stefano. Tear it up into strips as broad as your hand, for bandages, and set the women to make a little lint of old linen--cotton is not good. Where have they taken Sor Tommaso?"
"To his own house," answered the peasant.
"So much the better. Go and make the bandages."
Dalrymple pushed Stefanone towards the door with one hand, while he continued to fasten his clothes with the other.
Stefanone was not without some experience of similar cases, so he picked up his lantern and went off. In less than a quarter of an hour, he and Dalrymple were on their way to Sor Tommaso"s house, which was in the piazza of Subiaco, not far from the princ.i.p.al church. Half a dozen peasants, who had met the muleteers bringing the wounded doctor home from the spot where he had been found, followed the two men, talking excitedly in low voices and broken sentences. The dawn was grey above the houses, and the autumn mists had floated up to the parapet on the side where the little piazza looked down to the valley, and hung motionless in the still air, like a stage sea in a theatre. In the distance was heard the clattering of mules" shoes, and occasionally the deep clanking of the goats" bells. Just as the little party reached the small, dark green door of the doctor"s house the distant convent bells tolled one, then two quick strokes, then three again, and then five, and then rang out the peal for the morning Angelus. The door of the dirty little coffee shop in the piazza was already open, and a faint light burned within. The air was damp, quiet and strangely resonant, as it often is in mountain towns at early dawn. The gusty October wind had gone down, after blowing almost all night.
The case was far from being as serious as Dalrymple had expected, and he soon convinced himself that Sor Tommaso was not in any great danger. He had fainted from fright and some loss of blood, but neither of the two thrusts which had wounded him had penetrated to his lungs, and the third was little more than a scratch. Doubtless he owed his safety in part to the fact that the wind had blown his cloak in folds over his shoulders and head. But it was also clear that his a.s.sailant had possessed no experience in the use of the knife as a weapon. When the group of men at the door were told that Sor Tommaso was not mortally wounded, they went away somewhat disappointed at the insignificant ending of the affair, though the doctor was not an unpopular man in the town.
"It is some woman," said one of them, contemptuously. "What can a woman do with a knife? Worse than a cat--she scratches, and runs away."
"Some little jealousy," observed another. "Eh! Sor Tommaso--who knows where he makes love? But meanwhile he is growing old, to be so gay."
"The old are the worst," replied the first speaker. "Since it is nothing, let us have a baiocco"s worth of acquavita, and let us go away."
So they turned into the dirty little coffee shop to get their pennyworth of spirits. Meanwhile Dalrymple was washing and binding up his friend"s wounds. Sor Tommaso groaned and winced under every touch, and the Scotchman, with dry gentleness, did his best to rea.s.sure him. Stefanone looked on in silence for some time, helping Dalrymple when he was needed. The doctor"s servant-woman, a somewhat grimy peasant, was sitting on the stairs, sobbing loudly.
"It is useless," moaned Sor Tommaso. "I am dead."
"I may be mistaken," answered Dalrymple, "but I think not."
And he continued his operations with a sure hand, greatly to the admiration of Stefanone, who had often seen knife-wounds dressed.
Gradually Sor Tommaso became more calm. His face, from having been normally of a bright red, was now very pale, and his watery blue eyes blinked at the light helplessly like a kitten"s, as he lay still on his pillow. Stefanone went away to his occupations at last, and Dalrymple, having cleared away the litter of unused bandages and lint, and set things in order, sat down by the bedside to keep his patient company for a while. He was really somewhat anxious lest the wounds should have taken cold.
"If I get well, it will be a miracle," said Sor Tommaso, feebly. "I must think of my soul."
"By all means," answered the Scotchman. "It can do your soul no harm, and contemplation rests the body."
"You Protestants have not human sentiment," observed the Italian, moving his head slowly on the pillow. "But I also think of the abbess. I was to have gone there early this morning. She will also die. We shall both die."
Dalrymple crossed one leg over the other, and looked quietly at the doctor.
"Sor Tommaso," he said, "there is no other physician in Subiaco. I am a doctor, properly licensed to practise. It is evidently my duty to take care of your patients while you are ill."
"Mercy!" cried Sor Tommaso, with sudden energy, and opening his eyes very wide.
"Are you afraid that I shall kill them," asked Dalrymple, with a smile.
"Who knows? A foreigner! And the people say that you have converse with the devil. But the common people are ignorant."
"Very."
"And as for the convent--a Protestant--for the abbess! They would rather die. Figure to yourself what sort of a scandal there would be! A Protestant in a convent, and then, in that convent, too! The abbess would much rather die in peace."
"At all events, I will go and offer my services. If the abbess prefers to die in peace, she can answer to that effect. I will ask her what she thinks about it."
"Ask her!" repeated Sor Tommaso. "Do you imagine that you could see her?
But what can you know? I tell you that last night she was m.u.f.fled up in her chair, and her face covered. It needed the grace of Heaven, that I might feel her pulse! As for her tongue, G.o.d knows what it is like! I have not seen it. Not so much as the tip of it! Not even her eyes did I see. And to-day I was not to be admitted at all, because the abbess would be in bed. Imagine to yourself, with blisters and sinapisms, and a hundred things. I was only to speak with Sister Maria Addolorata, who is her niece, you know, in the anteroom of the abbess"s apartment. They would not let you in. They would give you a bath of holy water through the loophole of the convent door and say, "Go away, sinner; this is a religious house!" You know them very little."
"You are talking too much," observed Dalrymple, who had listened attentively. "It is not good for you. Besides, since you are able to speak, it would be better if you told me who stabbed you last night, that I may go to the police, and have the person arrested, if possible."
"You do not know what you are saying," answered Sor Tommaso, with sudden gravity. "The woman has relations--who could handle a knife better than she."
And he turned his face away.
CHAPTER VI.
THE sun was high when Dalrymple left Sor Tommaso in charge of the old woman-servant and went back to Stefanone"s house to dress himself with more care than he had bestowed upon his hasty toilet at dawn. And now that he had plenty of time, he was even more careful of his appearance than usual; for he had fully determined to attempt to take Sor Tommaso"s place in attendance upon the abbess. He therefore put on a coat of a sober colour and brushed his straight red hair smoothly back from his forehead, giving himself easily that extremely grave and trust-inspiring air which distinguishes many Scotchmen, and supports their solid qualities, while it seems to deny the possibility of any adventurous and romantic tendency.
At that hour n.o.body was about the house, and Dalrymple, stick in hand, sallied forth upon his expedition, looking for all the world as though he were going to church in Edinburgh instead of meditating an entrance into an Italian convent. He had said nothing more to the doctor on the subject. The people in the streets had most of them seen him often and knew him by name, and it did not occur to any one to wonder why a foreigner should wear one sort of coat rather than another, when he took his walks abroad. He walked leisurely; for the sky had cleared, and the sun was hot. Moreover, he followed the longer road in order to keep his shoes clean, instead of climbing up the narrow and muddy lane in which Sor Tommaso had been attacked. He reached the convent door at last, brushed a few specks of dust from his coat, settled his high collar and the broad black cravat which was then taking the place of the stock, and rang the bell with one steady pull. There was, perhaps, no occasion for nervousness. At all events, Dalrymple was as deliberate in his movements and as calm in all respects as he had ever been in his life. Only, just after he had pulled the weather-beaten bell-chain, a half-humorous smile bent his even lips and was gone again in a moment.
There was the usual slapping and shuffling of slippers in the vaulted archway within, but as it was now day, the loophole was opened immediately, and the portress came alone. Dalrymple explained in strangely accented but good Italian that Sor Tommaso had met with an accident in the night; that he, Angus Dalrymple, was a friend of the doctor"s and a doctor himself, and had undertaken all of Sor Tommaso"s duties, and, finally, that he begged the portress to find Sister Maria Addolorata, to repeat his story, and to offer his humble services in the cause of the abbess"s recovery. All of which the veiled nun within heard patiently to the end.
"I will speak to Sister Maria Addolorata," she said. "Have the goodness to wait."
"Outside?" inquired Dalrymple, as the little shutter of the loophole was almost closed.
"Of course," answered the nun, opening it again, and shutting it as soon as she had spoken.
Dalrymple waited a long time in the blazing sun. The main entrance of the convent faced to the southeast, and it was not yet midday. He grew hot, after his walk, and softly wiped his forehead, and carefully folded his handkerchief again before returning it to his pocket. At last he heard the sound of steps again, and in a few seconds the loophole was once more opened.