o the blackened cupboard, took out the remains of a stale
loaf, drew a big clasp-knife from his pocket, and cut off a moderate
slice.

"Eat," he said, as he gave it to her.

She went away grumbling, and Nino growled after her, standing on the
door-step. When she was a hundred yards from the house, he lay down with
his jaw on his forepaws and continued to watch her till she was out of
sight; then he gave a snort of satisfaction and immediately went to
sleep.

Ercole left his home after sunset that evening. He locked both the upper
and lower doors and immediately dropped the huge key into a crevice in
the stone steps, from which one might have supposed that it would not
be easy to recover it; but he doubtless knew what he was about. He might
have had one of the little horses from the farm if he had wanted one,
for he was a privileged person, but he preferred to walk. To a man of
his wiry frame thirty or forty miles on foot were nothing, and he could
easily have covered the distance in a night; but he was not going so
far, by any means, and a horse would only have been in the way. He
carried his gun, from force of habit, and he had his gun-licence in his
pocket, with his other papers, tied up in the old red handkerchief.
There was all that was left of the stale loaf, with the remains of some
cheese, in a canvas bag, he had slung over his shoulder, and he had
plenty of money; for his wages were good, and he never spent more than
half of what he received, merely because he had no wants, and no
friends.

Under the starlight he walked at a steady pace by familiar paths and
byways, so as to avoid the village and strike the highroad at some
distance beyond it. Nino followed close at his heels and perfectly
silent, and the pair might have been dangerous to any one inclined to
quarrel with them.

When Ercole was in sight of Porta San Sebastiano it was past midnight,
and he stood still to fill and light his little clay pipe. Then he went
on; but instead of entering the gate he took the road to the right
again, along the Via Appia Nuova. Any one might have supposed that he
would have struck across to that highroad some time before reaching the
city, but it was very long since Ercole had gone in that direction;
many new roads had been opened and some old ones had been closed, and he
was simply afraid of losing his way in a part of the Campagna no longer
familiar to him.

[Illustration: "ERCOLE LEFT HIS HOME AFTER SUNSET THAT