“You probably went to sleep, you little wretch,” observed Giovanni.  “Get out of my way, and go home!”

“Justice, sir!  Justice!” moaned the boy, dropping himself on his knees.

“Nonsense!  Go away!” Giovanni pushed him aside, and began to walk on.

The boy sprang up and followed him, and running beside him as Giovanni tried to get away, touched the skirt of his coat respectfully, and then kissed the back of his own hand.

“If you will listen to me, sir,” he said in a low voice, “I will tell you something you wish to know.”

Giovanni stopped short and looked at him with curiosity.

“I will tell you of something the master did on the Sunday night before he went on his journey,” continued the lad.  “I am one of the night boys in the laboratory, and I saw with my eyes while the others were asleep, for we had been told to wait till we were called.”

Giovanni looked about, to see whether any one was within hearing.  They were still in the covered footway above which the first story of the house was built, but were near the end, and the shutters of the lower windows were closed.

“Tell me what you saw,” said Giovanni, “but do not speak loud.”

At this moment the other two boys came running up with noisy lamentations.  With the wisdom of their kind they had patiently watched to see whether their companion would get a hearing of the master, and judging that he had been successful at last, they came to enjoy the fruit of his efforts.

“We also have been beaten!” they wailed, but they bore no outward and visible signs of ill-treatment on them.

The elder boy turned upon them with righteous fury, and to their unspeakable surprise began to drive them away with kicks and blows.  They could not stand against him, and after a brief resistance, they turned and ran at full speed.  The victor came back to Giovanni’s side.

“They are cowardly fellows,” he said, with disdain.  “They are ignorant boys.  What do you expect?  But they will not come back.”

“Go on with your story,” said Giovanni impatiently, “but speak low.”

“It was on Sunday night, sir.  The master came to talk with Zorzi in the laboratory.  I was in the garden, at the entrance of the other passage.  When the door opened there was not much light, and the master was wrapped in his cloak, and he turned a little, and went in sideways, so I knew that he had something under his arm, for the door is narrow.”

“He was probably bringing over some valuable materials,” said Giovanni.

“I believe he was bringing the great book,” said the boy confidently, but almost in a whisper.

“What great book?”

The lad looked at Giovanni with an expression of cunning on his face, as much as to say that he was not to be deceived by such a transparent pretence of ignorance.

“He was afraid to leave it in his house,” he said, “lest you should find it and learn how to make the gold as he does.  So he took it over to the laboratory at night.”