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Updated: May 17, 2025
He could see one half of the great arched entrance, but the projecting stone jamb of the window hindered him from seeing more. It was very quiet, and he could hear footsteps below, on the gravel of the courtyard, if any one passed. At the end of ten minutes he heard a man's heavy tread, and knew that it was Masin's.
His chief preoccupation was to get rid of the detective and his men as quickly as possible. Malipieri opened the doors as he went along, and showed several empty rooms, before he came to Masin's. "This is where my man sleeps," he said carelessly. The detective went in, looked about and suddenly pounced upon a towel on which there were stains of blood. "What is this?" he asked sharply.
In order to reach the horizontal opening, Malipieri had climbed upon Masin's sturdy shoulders, steadying himself as well as he might till he had laid his hands on the edge of the orifice.
"I will creep down over the arm," she said, "and then you can follow me. I hope there are no beasts," she added. "I hate spiders." Malipieri lowered his lantern beside her, and she crept along towards the statue's head. In a few moments he was beside her, bringing both the lantern and the lamp with him. They had both forgotten Masin's existence, as he had not yet appeared.
Without making any noise, though he was sure that Sabina was in a deep sleep by this time, he went back through the first door and quietly got a supply of clothes, and took them with him to Masin's room, and washed there, and dressed himself as carefully as if he were going out. Then he went back to his study and sat down wearily in his armchair.
At the bottom of the descent, both looked up, and saw at a glance that poor old Sassi could never get down, even with assistance. He seemed unable to put his foot down without slipping, in spite of Masin's help. "I think you had better not try it," said Malipieri quietly. "In a few days I am sure that the Senator will have a way broken through from above, and then it will be easy enough."
Masin's china-blue eyes brightened at the thought of a possible fight, and his hold tightened again on his drill. "What shall we do with him?" he asked, looking down into the hole. Cunning, as the Italian peasant is by nature, Masin made a sign to his master that the man, if he were really below, could hear all that was said. "Shall I go down and kill him, sir?"
In such a hand as Masin's a blow from it would have broken a man's bones like pipe stems. The wall was about eight feet thick, and when Malipieri got to the other end of the hole he stopped and looked down, holding out his lantern at arm's length. He could see nothing unusual, and he heard no sound, except the gurgle of the little black stream that ran ten feet below him. He began to descend.
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