The doctor leaned farther out of the window.

"An accident! What--?"

But the man, a fisherman of Marechiaro, was already gone, and the doctor
saw only the narrow, deserted street, black with the shadows of the tall
houses.

He drew in quickly and began to dress himself with some expedition. An
accident, and to a forestiere! There would be money in this case. He
regretted his lost sleep less now and cursed no more, though he thought
of the ride up into the mountains with a good deal of self-pity. It was
no joke to be a badly paid Sicilian doctor, he thought, as he tugged at
his trousers buttons, and fastened the white front that covered the
breast of his flannel shirt, and adjusted the cuffs which he took out of
a small drawer. Without lighting a candle he went down-stairs, fumbled
about, and found his case of instruments. Then he opened the street door
and waited, yawning on the stone pavement. In two or three minutes he
heard the tripping tip-tap of a donkey's hoofs, and the fisherman came up
leading a donkey apparently as disinclined for a nocturnal flitting as
the doctor.

"Ah, Giuseppe, it's you, is it?"

"Si, Signor Dottore!"

"What's this accident?"

The fisherman looked grave and crossed himself.

"Oh, signore, it is terrible! They say the poor signore is dead!"

"Dead!" exclaimed the doctor, startled. "You said is was an accident.
Dead you say now?"

"Signore, he is dead beyond a doubt. I was going to the fishing when I
heard dreadful cries in the water by the inlet--you know, by Salvatore's
terreno!"

"In the water?"

"Si, signore. I went down quickly and I found Gaspare, the signore's--"

"I know--I know!"

"Gaspare in a boat with the padrone lying at the bottom, and the signora
standing up to her middle in the sea."

"Z't! z't!" exclaimed the doctor, "the signora in the sea! Is she mad?"

"Signor Dottore, how do I know? I brought the boat to shore. Gaspare was
like one crazed. Then we lifted the signore out upon the stones. Oh, he
is dead, Signor Dottore; dead beyond a doubt. They had found him in the
sea--"

"They?"

"Gaspare--under the rocks between Salvatore's terreno and the main-land.
He had all his clothes on. He must have been there in the dark--"

"Why should he go in the dark?"

"How do I know, Signor Dottore?--and have fallen, and struck his head
against the rocks. For there was a wound and--"

"The body should not have been moved from where it lay till the Pretore
had