“That’s quite clear,” assented the prefect.

“Where was Tomaso Bianchi’s interest?” exclaimed Colomba triumphantly.  “His brother’s lease had run out.  My father had given him notice on the 1st of July.  Here is my father’s account-book; here is his note of warning given to Teodoro, and the letter from a business man at Ajaccio suggesting a new tenant.”

As she spoke she gave the prefect the papers she had been holding in her hand.

There was an astonished pause.  The mayor turned visibly pale.  Orso, knitting his brows, leaned forward to look at the papers, which the prefect was perusing most attentively.

“We are being made to look like fools!” cried Orlanduccio again, springing angrily to his feet.  “Let us be off, father!  We ought never to have come here!”

One instant’s delay gave Signor Barricini time to recover his composure.  He asked leave to see the papers.  Without a word the prefect handed them over to him.  Pushing his green spectacles up to his forehead, he looked through them with a somewhat indifferent air, while Colomba watched him with the eyes of a tigress who sees a buck drawing near to the lair where she had hidden her cubs.

“Well,” said Signor Barricini, as he pulled down his spectacles and returned the documents, “knowing the late colonel’s kind heart, Tomaso thought—­most likely he thought—­that the colonel would change his mind about the notice.  As a matter of fact, Bianchi is still at the mill, so—­”

“It was I,” said Colomba, and there was scorn in her voice, “who left him there.  My father was dead, and situated as I was, I was obliged to treat my brother’s dependents with consideration.”

“Yet,” quoth the prefect, “this man Tomaso acknowledges that he wrote the letter.  That much is clear.”

“The thing that is clear to me,” broke in Orso, “is that there is some vile infamy underneath this whole business.”

“I have to contradict another assertion made by these gentlemen,” said Colomba.

She threw open the door into the kitchen and instantly Brandolaccio, the licentiate in theology, and Brusco, the dog, marched into the room.  The two bandits were unarmed—­apparently, at all events; they wore their cartridge belts, but the pistols, which are their necessary complement, were absent.  As they entered the room they doffed their caps respectfully.

The effect produced by their sudden appearance may be conceived.  The mayor almost fell backward.  His sons threw themselves boldly in front of him, each one feeling for his dagger in his coat pocket.  The prefect made a step toward the door, and Orso, seizing Brandolaccio by the collar, shouted: 

“What have you come here for, you villain?”

“This is a trap!” cried the mayor, trying to get the door open.  But, by the bandits’ orders, as was afterward discovered, Saveria had locked it on the outside.

“Good people,” said Brandolaccio, “don’t be afraid of me.  I’m not such a devil as I look.  We mean no harm at all.  Signor Prefetto, I’m your very humble servant.  Gently, lieutenant!  You’re strangling me!  We’re here as witnesses!  Now then, Padre, speak up!  Your tongue’s glib enough!”