THE ROVER & SUSPENSE (Napoleonic Novels). Джозеф Конрад

seemed disposed to listen he continued. "It is vaulted like a cellar, and has a little door giving on to a side street. People come in and out as they like. All sorts of low people, sir, facchini, and carters, and boatmen, and suchlike. There was an old fellow came in, a grey-headed man, a cobbler, I suppose, as he brought a bagful of mended shoes for the servants of the house. He emptied the lot on the stone floor, sir, and instead of trying to collect his money from the people that were scrambling for them, he made them a speech. He spouted, sir, without drawing breath. The courier-valet of an English doctor staying here, a Swiss I think he is, says to me in his broken English: 'He would cut every Austrian throat in this town.' We were having a glass of wine together and I asked him, 'And what do you think of that?' And he says to me after thinking a bit, 'I agree with him....' Very dreadful, sir," concluded Spire with a perfectly unmoved face.

      Cosmo looked at him in silence for a time. "It is very bold talk, if that is what the man really said," he remarked. "Especially as the place is so public as you say it is."

      "Absolutely open to the street, sir; and that same Swiss fellow had told me just before that the town was full of spies and what they call sbirri that came from Turin with the king. The king is staying at the palace, sir. They are expecting the Queen of Sardinia to arrive any day. You didn't know, sir? They say she will come in an English man-of-war. That old cobbler was very abusive about the King of Piedmont, too. Surely talk like that can't be safe anywhere."

      Spire paused suddenly, and Cosmo Latham turned his back to the fire.

      "Well, and what happened?" he asked with a smile.

      "You could have heard a pin drop," said Spire, in equable tones, "till that Signor Cantelucci--that's the padrone of this inn, sir..."

      "The man who lighted me up?" said Cosmo.

      "Yes, sir.... I didn't know he was in the room, till suddenly he spoke behind my back telling one of the scullions that was there to give the man a glass of wine. And what the old fellow must do but raise it above his head, and shout a toast to the Destructor of the Austrians before he tossed it down his throat. I was quite astonished, but Signor Cantelucci never turned a hair. He offered his snuff-box to that doctor's courier and myself, and shrugged his shoulders. 'It was only Pietro,' he said, 'a little mad,' he tapped his forehead, you know, sir. The doctor's courier sat there grinning. I got suddenly uneasy about you, sir, and went out to the front door to see whether you were coming. It's very different from what it was thirty years ago. There was no talk in Italy of cutting foreigners' throats when Sir Charles and I were here. It was quite a startling experience."

      Cosmo nodded. "You seem impressed, Spire. Well, I too had an experience, just as the sun was setting."

      "I am sorry to hear that, sir."

      "What do you mean? Why should you be sorry?"

      "I beg your pardon, sir, I thought it was something unpleasant."

      Cosmo had a little laugh. "Unpleasant? No! not exactly, though I think it was more dangerous than yours, but if there was any madness connected with it, it had a very visible method. It was not all talk, either. Yes, Spire, it was exciting."

      "I don't know what's come to them all. Everybody seems excited. There was no excitement in Italy thirty years ago when I was with Sir Charles and took four horses with only one helper from this very town to Florence, sir."

      Cosmo with fixed eyes did not seem to hear Spire's complaining remark. He exclaimed: "Really it was very extraordinary," so suddenly that Spire gave a perceptible start. He pulled himself together and asked in a purely business tone:

      "Are you going to dine in your room, sir? Time is getting on."

      Cosmo's mood too seemed to have changed completely.

      "I don't know. I am not hungry. I want you to move one of those screens here near the fire, and place a table and chair there. I will do some correspondence to-night. Yes, I will have my dinner here, I think."

      "I will go down and order it, sir," said Spire. "The cook here is a Frenchman who married a native and..."

      "Who on earth is swearing like this outside?" exclaimed Cosmo, while Spire's face also expressed astonishment at the loud burst of voices coming along the corridor, one angry, the other argumentative, in a crescendo of scolding and expostulation which passing the door at its highest died away into a confused murmur in the distance of the long corridor.

      "That was an English voice," said Cosmo. "I mean the angry one."

      "I should think it's that English doctor from Tuscany that has been three or four days here already. He has been put on this floor."

      "From what I have been able to catch," said Cosmo, "he seems very angry at having a neighbour on it. That must be me. Have you heard his name?"

      "It's Marvel or some such name. He seems to be known here; he orders people about as if he were at home. The other was Cantelucci, sir."

      "Very likely. Look here, Spire, I will dine in the public room downstairs. I want to see that angry gentleman. Did you see him, Spire?"

      "Only his back, sir. Very broad, sir. Tall man. In boots and a riding-coat. Are you going down now, sir? The dinner must be on already."

      "Yes," said Cosmo, preparing to go out. "And by the by, Spire if you ever see in the street or in that room downstairs where everyone comes in and out, as you say, a long fellow wearing a peculiar cap with a tassel, just try to find out something about him; or at any rate let me know when you have seen him. You could perhaps follow him for a bit, and try to see where he goes."

      After saying those words Cosmo left the room before Spire could make any answer. Spire's astonishment expressed itself by a low exclamation, "Well, I never!"

      PART II

       Table of Contents