“Will you be kind?” she said.  “Won’t you answer my brother’s letter?  You would do him so much good!  For a moment I thought of waking you when his letter came, and then I didn’t dare!”

“You did very wrong,” replied Miss Nevil.  “If a word from me could—­”

“I can’t send him any letter now.  The prefect has arrived, and Pietranera is full of his policemen.  Later on, we’ll see what we can do.  Oh, Miss Nevil, if you only knew my brother, you would love him as dearly as I do.  He’s so good!  He’s so brave!  Just think of what he has done!  One man against two, and wounded as well!”

The prefect had returned.  Warned by an express messenger sent by the deputy-mayor, he had brought over the public prosecutor, the registrar, and all their myrmidons, to investigate the fresh and terrible catastrophe which had just complicated, or it may be ended, the warfare between the chief families of Pietranera.  Shortly after his arrival, he saw the colonel and his daughter, and did not conceal his fear that the business might take on an ugly aspect.

“You know,” he said, “that the fight took place without witnesses, and the reputation of these two unhappy men stood so high, both for bravery and cunning, that nobody will believe Signor della Rebbia can have killed them without the help of the bandits with whom he is now supposed to have taken refuge.”

“It’s not possible,” said the colonel.  “Orso della Rebbia is a most honourable fellow.  I’ll stake my life on that.”

“I believe you,” said the prefect.  “But the public prosecutor (those gentry always are suspicious) does not strike me as being particularly well disposed toward him.  He holds one bit of evidence which goes rather against our friend—­a threatening letter to Orlanduccio, in which he suggests a meeting, and is inclined to think that meeting was a trap.”

“That fellow Orlanduccio refused to fight it out like a gentleman.”

“That is not the custom here.  In this country, people lie in ambush, and kill each other from behind.  There is one deposition in his favour—­that of a child, who declares she heard four reports, two of which were louder than the others, and produced by a heavy weapon, such as Signor della Rebbia’s gun.  Unluckily, the child is the niece of one of the bandits suspected of being his accomplices, and has probably been taught her lesson.”

“Sir,” broke in Miss Lydia, reddening to the roots of her hair, “we were on the road when those shots were fired, and we heard the same thing.”

“Really?  That’s most important!  And you, colonel, no doubt you remarked the very same thing?”

“Yes,” responded Miss Lydia quickly.  “It was my father, who is so accustomed to firearms, who said to me, ’There’s Signor della Rebbia shooting with my gun!’”

“And you are sure those shots you recognised were the last?”

“The two last, weren’t they, papa?”