Those things the officer told the Governor on the next day, and the men solemnly swore to them, and they were all written down by the official scribe.  But the Governor raised one eyebrow a little, and the corners of his mouth twitched strangely, though he made no remark upon what had been said.  He remembered, however, that Giovanni had advised him to send a very strong force to arrest the lame young man, from which he argued that Zorzi had powerful friends, and that Giovanni knew it.  He then visited the scene of the fight, and saw that there were drops of blood on dry stones, which was not astonishing and which gave no clue whatever to the identity of the rescuers.  He pointed out quietly to his guide, the man who had only received a ducking, that there were no signs of fire on the pavement nor on the walls of the houses, which was a strong argument against any theory of diabolical intervention; and this the man was reluctantly obliged to admit.  The strangest thing, however, was that the people who lived near by seemed to have heard no noise, though one old man, who slept badly, believed that he had heard the clatter of wood and iron falling together, and then a splashing in the canal; and indeed those were almost the only sounds that had disturbed the night.  The whole affair was shrouded in mystery, and the Governor, who knew that his men were to be trusted as far as their limited intelligence could go, resolved to refer the matter to the Council of Ten without delay.  He therefore bade the archers hold their tongues and refuse to talk of their misadventure.

On that night Giovanni had suffered the greatest disappointment he remembered in his whole life.  He had found without much trouble the stone that rang hollow, but it had cost him great pains to lift it, and the sweat ran down from his forehead and dropped upon the slab as he slowly got it up.  His heart beat so that he fancied he could hear it, both from the effort he made, and from his intense excitement, now that the thing he had most desired in the world was within his grasp.  At last the big stone was raised upright, and the light of the lamp that stood on the floor fell slanting across the dark hole.  Giovanni brought the lamp to the edge and looked in.  He could not see the box, but a quantity of loose earth lay there, under which it was doubtless buried.  He knelt down and began to scoop the earth out, using his two hands together.  Then he thrust one hand in, and felt about for the box.  There was nothing there.  He cleared out the cavity thoroughly, and tried to loosen the soil at the bottom, tearing his nails in his excitement.  It must be there, he was sure.

But it was not.  When he realised that he had been tricked, he collapsed, kneeling as he was, and sat upon his heels, and his crooked hands all dark with the dusty earth clutched at the stones beside him.  He remained thus a long time, staring at the empty hole.  Then caution, which was even stronger in his nature than greed, brought him to himself.  His thin face was grey and haggard as he carefully swept the earth back to its place, removing all traces of what he had done.  Then he knew how foolish he had been to let Zorzi know what he had partly heard and partly guessed.