"Remaining in a state of wakefulness all the time?"

"Yes."

She rested her two elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. The Countess at once said:

"Who has been digging? Who has been making excavations under the fountain and under the sun-dial?"

A minute passed slowly. They had the impression she was concentrating and withdrawing from all contact with the world around her. At last she said in measured tones which bore no resemblance to the accents of a pythoness or a somnambulist.

"I see nothing on the esplanade. In that quarter the excavations must already be several days old, and all traces are obliterated. But in the ravine——"

"In the ravine?" said the Countess.

"The slab is standing on end and a man is digging a hole with a mattock."

"A man? What man? Describe him."

"He is wear. . . Read More