t did not know the
cause of the shot, but seeing the alarm of the men he endeavored to
excite their fears. One of the men went back, and was cursed by
Girasole for his pains. So he returned to the grave, cursing every
body.

The coffin was now lowered into the grave, and the priest urged the
men to go away and let him finish the work; but they refused. The
fellows seemed to have some affection for their dead comrade, and
wished to show it by putting him underground, and doing the last
honors. So the efforts of the Irish priest, though very well meant,
and very urgent, and very persevering, did not meet with that success
which he anticipated.

Suddenly he stopped in the midst of the burial service, which he was
prolonging to the utmost.

"Hark!" he cried, in Italian.

"What?" they asked.

"It's a gun! It's an alarm!"

"There's no gun, and no alarm," said they.

All listened, but there was no repetition of the sound, and the priest
went on.

He had to finish it.

He stood trembling and at his wit's end. Already the men began to
throw in the earth.

But now there came a real alarm.

CHAPTER XXXI.

DISCOVERED.

The report of the pistol had startled Minnie, and for a moment had
greatly agitated her. The cry of Mrs. Willoughby elicited a response
from her to the effect that all was right, and would, no doubt, have
resulted in a conversation, had it not been prevented by Girasole.

Minnie then relapsed into silence for a time, and Ethel took a seat by
her side on the floor, for Minnie would not go near the straw, and
then the two interlocked their arms in an affectionate embrace.

"Ethel darling," whispered Minnie, "do you know I'm beginning to get
awfully tired of this?"

"I should think so, poor darling!"

"If I only had some place to sit on," said Minnie, still reverting to
her original grievance, "it wouldn't be so very bad, you know. I could
put up with not having a bed, or a sofa, or that sort of thing, you
know; but really I must say not to have any kind of a seat seems to me
to be very, very inconsiderate, to say the least of it."

"Poor darling!" said Ethel again.

"And now do you know, Ethel dear, I'm beginning to feel as though I
should really like to run away from this place, if I thought that
horrid man wouldn't see me?"

"Minnie darling," said Ethel, "that's the very thing I came for, you
know."

"Oh yes, I know! And that dear, nice, good, kind, delightful priest!
Oh, it wa