"And you will have no chance now." Vittoria tipped her chin the slightest bit.
"I must see you, alone."
"Impossible!"
"To-night. You can slip away on some pretext or other. It is really important."
She regarded him questioningly. "If that is true I will try, but--I cannot meet you at Oliveta"s house. Besides, you must not go into that quarter alone at night."
"What do you mean?" he inquired, wondering how she could know of his danger.
"Because--no American is safe there now. Perhaps I can meet you on the street yonder."
"I"ll be waiting."
"It may be late, unless I tell Myra Nell."
"Heaven above! She"d insist on coming, too, just because it"s forbidden."
"Very well. Now go before you are discovered."
During the afternoon his excitement increased deliciously, and that evening he found himself pacing the shaded street near the La Branche home, with the eager restlessness of a lover.
It was indeed late when Vittoria finally appeared.
"Myra Nell is such a chatterbox," she explained, "that I couldn"t get her to bed. Have you waited long?"
"I dare say. I"m not sure."
"This is very exciting, is it not?" She glanced over her shoulder up the ill-lighted street. Rows of shade trees cast long inky blots between the corner illuminations; the houses on either side sat well back in their yards, increasing the sense of isolation. "It is quite a new experience for me."
"For me, too."
"I hope we"re not seen. Signore Norvin Blake and a trained nurse! Oh, the comment!"
"There"s a bench near by where we can sit. Pa.s.sers-by will take us for servants."
"You are the butler, I am the maid," she laughed.
"I am glad you can laugh," he told her. "You were very sad, there at Terranova."
"I"ve learned the value of a smile. Life is full of gladness if we can only bring ourselves to see it. Now tell me the meaning of this. I knew it must be important or I would not have come." Back of the bench upon which she had seated herself a jessamine vine depended, filling the air with perfume; the night was warm and still and languorous; through the gloom she regarded him with curiosity.
"I hate to begin," he said. "I dread to speak of unpleasant things--to you. I wish we might just sit here and talk of whatever we pleased."
"We cannot sit here long on any account. But let me guess. It is your work against--those men."
"Exactly. You know the history of our struggle with the Mafia?"
"Everything."
"I am leading a hard fight, and I think you can help me."
"Why do you think so?" she asked, in a low voice. "I have given up my part. I have no desire for revenge."
"Nor have I. I do not wish to harm any man; but I became involved in this through a desire to see justice done, and I have reached a point where I cannot stop or go back. It started with the arrest of Gian Narcone. You know how Donnelly was killed. They took his life for Narcone"s, and he, too, was my--dear friend."
"All this is familiar to me," she said, in a strained tone.
"I will tell you something that no one knows but myself, I have a friend among the Mafiosi, and it is he, not I, who has brought the murderers of Mr. Donnelly to an accounting."
"You know him?"
"Yes. At least I think I do."
"His--name?" She was staring at him oddly.
"I feel bound not to reveal it even to you. He has told me many things, among them that Belisario Cardi is alive, is here, and that it is he who worked all this evil."
"What has all this to do with me?" she inquired. "Have I not told you that I gave my search into other hands?"
"It was Cardi who killed--one whom we both loved, one for whose life I would have given my own; it was Cardi who destroyed my next-best friend, a simple soul who lived for nothing but his duty. Now he has threatened my life also--does that count for nothing with you?"
She leaned forward, searching his face earnestly. "You are a brave man. You should go away where he cannot harm you."
"I would like very much to," he confessed, "but I am too great a coward to run away."
"And why do you tell me this?"
"I need your help. My mysterious friend can do no more; he has said so. I"m not equal to it alone."
"Oh," she cried, as if yielding to a feeling long suppressed, "I did so want to be rid of it all, and now you are in danger--the greatest danger. Won"t you give it up?"
He shook his head, puzzled at her vehemence. "I don"t wish to drag you into it against your will, but Oliveta lives there among her countrypeople. She must know many things which I, as an outsider, could never learn. I--need help."
There was a long silence before the girl said:
"Yes, I will help, for I am still the same woman you knew in Sicily. I am still full of hatred. I would give my life to convict Martel"s a.s.sa.s.sins; but I am fighting myself. That is why I have gone to live with Oliveta until I have conquered and am ready to become a Sister."
"Please don"t say that."
"Oliveta, you know, is alone," she went on, with forced composure, "and so I watch over her. She is to be married soon, and when she is safe, then I think I can return to the Sisters and live as I long to.
It will be a good match, much better than I ever hoped for, and she loves, which is even more blessed to contemplate." Vittoria laid her hands impulsively upon his arm. "Meanwhile I cannot refuse such aid as I can give you, for you have already suffered too much through me. You _have_ suffered, have you not?"
"It has turned my hair gray," he laughed, trying not to show the depth of his feeling. "But now that I know you are safe and well and happy, nothing seems to matter. Does Myra Nell know who you are?"
"No one knows save you and Oliveta. If that child even dreamed--" She lifted her slender hands in an eloquent gesture. "My secret would be known in an hour. Now I must go, for even housemaids must observe the proprieties."