ld knife,
at the cord, severing one by one the filaments that composed it,
but doing this so slowly that he began to grow impatient. The
women were not looking. There was no danger. To work with one hand
was useless, and so he reached forth both hands, and began sawing
away more vigorously than ever. But his impatience, and his vehement
pulls and tugs, produced an effect which he had not expected. The
heavy drapery, which had been loosely thrown over, began to slide
off towards him as he pulled. David did not notice this, but
continued his work, looking around to see whether the women were
noticing him or not. At length he had sawed the cord almost through,
and gave a quick pull at it to break it.

The next moment the heavy drapery came sliding down towards him,
and, to his horror, the wooden image came with it, falling with a
crash on the marble pavement.

In an instant the two women started to their feet, staring with
wild eyes at the image and the drapery. Then their wild eyes caught
sight of David, whose frightened face would have revealed him as
the guilty cause of this catastrophe, even if it had not been shown
by the tassel and the knife, which were in his hands.

With a sharp, shrill scream, one of the women sprang towards him.
David instinctively leaped back, and eluded her. The woman chased.
David dodged her around a pillar.

The woman followed.

David dodged behind another pillar.

The woman cried out, "_O Scellerato! Birbone! Furbo! Ladrone!_"
And though David's knowledge of the Italian language was but slight,
yet it sufficed to show him that these names which she yelled after
him had a very direful signification.

Thus David fled, dodging, the woman behind pillar after pillar,
until at length he came near to the door. Had the other woman taken
part in the chase, David would certainly have been captured. But
the other woman did not. She stood as if petrified--motionless and
mute, staring at the fallen sanctuary, and overwhelmed with horror.
So the flight went on, until at length, reaching the door, David
made a rush for it, dashed through, and ran as fast as his legs
could carry him. The woman followed, but at a slower rate of speed,
and saw him go into the hotel. Then she returned to the church,
after which she went abroad with the story of the horrible desecration
through all Sorrento.

On reaching the hotel, David found the rest of the party there, at
dinner. He said nothing of his recent adv