n a flash it occurred to her that he would think it very
strange if she could not answer such a simple question about a young man
she professed to know very well.

"His name is Botti," she said, with no apparent hesitation, and giving
the first name that occurred to her.

"Thank you. I shall enter him in the books as 'Botti Marcello.'"

"Yes. That is the name." She watched the Superintendent's pen, though
she could not read writing very well.

"Thank you," he said, as he stuck the pen into a little pot of
small-shot before him, and then looked at his watch. "The nurse is
probably just making him comfortable after the doctor's morning visit,
so you had better wait five minutes, if you do not mind. Besides, it
will help us a good deal if you will tell me something about his
illness. I suppose you have taken care of him."

"As well as I could," Regina answered.

"Where? At Rocca di Papa? The air is good there."

"No, it was not in the village." The girl hesitated a moment, quickly
making up her mind how much of the truth to tell. "You see," she
continued presently, "I was only the servant girl there, and I saw that
the people meant to let him die, because he was a burden on them. So I
wrapped him in a blanket and carried him downstairs in the night."

"You carried him down?" The Superintendent look at her in admiration.

"Oh, yes," answered Regina quietly. "I could carry you up and down
stairs easily. Do you wish to see?"

The Superintendent laughed, for she actually made a movement as if she
were going to leave her seat and pick him up.

"Thank you," he said. "I quite believe you. What a nurse you would make!
You say that you carried him down in the night--and then? What did you
do?"

"I laid him on the tail of a cart. The carter was asleep. I walked
behind to the gate, for I was sure that when he was found he would be
brought here, and that he would have care, and would get well."

"Was it far to walk?" inquired the Superintendent, delighted with the
result of his efforts as a detective. "You must have been very tired!"

"What is it to walk all night, if one carries no load on one's head?"
asked Regina with some scorn. "I walk as I breathe."

"You walked all night, then? That was Friday night. I do not wish to
keep you, my dear child, but if you would tell me how long Botti has
been ill--" he waited.

"This is the forty-ninth day," Regina answered at once.

"Dear me! Poor boy! That is a long time!"