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