it; he means to look after his own affairs himself. If
a murder has been committed a crowd will collect round the murdered
man--a crowd that includes the police and also the murderer--but no one
has any idea who committed the crime, not even those who saw it done, and
not even the dying man, who may carry his assumption of ignorance so far
as to call his murderer to his side, embrace him affectionately and give
him a Judas-kiss which bears a double meaning; for the police and the
general public it is evidence that there can have been no ill-feeling
between the two, while for the friends of the murdered man it confirms
their suspicions as to the one on whom the vendetta is to be executed.
So many have told me this that I cannot help thinking that, if it really
is done as often as they say, it must by now have lost some of its power
of deceiving the police. Probably it was done on some occasion which
took the public fancy, and they keep on repeating it because it makes a
dramatic close.

Giovanni Grasso has a play called _Omerta_:_ La Legge del Silenzio_. Don
Andrea has been murdered by or at the instigation of Don Toto
(Salvatore), who is an overbearing bully, nevertheless Saru (Rosario) has
been sent to prison for the crime and, during his absence, his girl has
married Don Toto. The play opens with the return from prison of Saru,
acted by Giovanni. He comes to the house of his mother, with whom Don
Toto and his wife are living. The length of the play is provided by the
disappointments attending his return: his setting up for himself and
painting paladins on Sicilian carts; a scene of passionate tenderness
with his mother, during which he convinces her of his innocence, but
refuses to reveal the name of the murderer which he has learnt in prison;
a beautiful interview with Pasqualino, his young brother, who shows he is
the right sort of boy by declaring of his own accord that he hates Don
Toto; a magnificent interrupted quarrel with Don Toto, and scenes with
the police and with the priest to whom Saru refuses to give any
information about the murder. Towards the end Saru staggers in wounded.
They all try to make him tell the name of his murderer, but he will not.
Finally, he is left alone with Pasqualino to whom he gives his revolver
with these dying words:

"For Don Toto, when you shall be eighteen."

Pasqualino understands, kisses the pistol and accepts the obligation,
saying:

"I will see to it."

The ot