“He shall not die!”

CHAPTER X

GARIBALDI, STRETCHER-BEARER

The long night set in, and the soldier, wearied from his long wait, dropped to sleep in spite of the noise.  Lucia’s tired little body rested, but her eyes never relaxed their watch in the darkness.

The fire kept up steadily, and at irregular intervals a star-shell would illuminate the high mountains.  Towards midnight there was an extra loud explosion, and once more the terrifying flames seemed to encircle Cellino.

Lucia wondered dully what had been struck.  The church was gone, and she supposed this was the town hall.  It looked too near, as far as she could judge, for the convent.

Her ears were becoming accustomed to the sound, and she thought the fire from both sides was being concentrated towards the south.  The shells near them lessened, and at last stopped.  Before dawn the Italian stirred, and called out in his sleep.

Lucia spoke to him, but he did not answer; he was so exhausted that he was soon unconscious again.

Lucia watched the east, and tried to imagine Beppi safe and sound in a town far away from this terrible din, but she could be sure of nothing.  She remembered Roderigo’s words, ‘She is safe,’ and knew that he must have meant Maria.  Surely Beppi and Nana were with her and Aunt Rudini; it could not be otherwise.

With a guilty start she remembered Garibaldi.  Where was she, and what had become of her in all the terrors of yesterday?  Lucia could not remember having noticed her after she left the footbridge.  Was she safe in the mountains, or lying dead in a shell hole?

“My Garibaldi, poor little one, she would not understand, and she will think I neglected her.”

Tears of pity and weariness stung Lucia’s cheeks.  The thought of her little goat, suffering and neglected, seemed to be more than she could bear.  She buried her head in her arm and cried softly.  The tears were a relief to her, and long after she had stopped sobbing they trickled down her cheeks.

She fell into a light doze now that her watch was so nearly ended, and did not waken until the east was streaked with gray.  She might not have awakened then, had it not been for a cold, wet nose burrowing in her neck, and a plaintive, “Naa, Naa!”

She sat up suddenly to discover Garibaldi, covered with mud from her ears to her tail, looking very woe-begone, standing beside her.  Regardless of the mud Lucia threw her arms around her pet, and for once in her life the little goat seemed to return her caress.

When Lucia lifted her head there was a smile on her lips, and the old light of determination shone in her eyes.  She got to her knees slowly and looked about her.  The guns were booming back and forth, but their position seemed to be changed.  The Austrian guns still sounded from across the river, but their range was much farther south.