own window,
and met him in the passage when he came up. He at once promised to make
inquiries about Zorzi and went off to the palace to find his friend and
crony, the Governor's head boatman. The latter, it is needless to say,
knew every detail of the supernatural rescue from the archers, who could
talk of nothing else in spite of the Governor's prohibition. They sat in
a row on the stone bench within the main entrance, a rueful crew, their
heads bound up with a pleasing variety of bandages. In an hour the
gondolier returned, laden with the wonderful story which Nella was the
first, but not the last, to hear from him. Her brown eyes seemed to be
starting from her head when she came back to tell it to her mistress.

Marietta listened with a beating heart, though Nella began at once by
saying that Zorzi had mysteriously disappeared, and was certainly not in
prison. When all was told, she drew a long breath, and wished that she
could be alone to think over what she had heard; but Nella's imagination
was roused, and she was prepared to discuss the affair all the morning.
The details of it had become more and more numerous and circumstantial,
as the men with the bandaged heads recalled what they had seen and
heard. The devils that had delivered Zorzi all had blue noses, brass
teeth and fiery tails. A peculiarity of theirs was that they had six
fingers with six iron claws on each hand, and that all their hoofs were
red-hot. As to their numbers, they might be roughly estimated at a
thousand or so, and their roaring was like the howling of the south wind
and the breaking of the sea on the Lido in a winter storm. It was
horrible to hear, and would alone have put all the armies of the
Republic to ignominious flight. Nella thought these things very
interesting. She wished that she might talk with one of the men who had
seen a real devil.

"I do not believe a word of all that nonsense," said Marietta. "The most
important thing is that Zorzi got away from them and is not in prison."

"If he escaped by selling his soul to the fiends," said Nella, shaking
her head, "it is a very evil thing."

Her mistress's disbelief in the blue noses and fiery tails was
disconcerting, and had a chilling effect on Nella's talkative mood. The
gondolier had crossed the bridge, to tell his story to Pasquale, whose
view of the case seemed to differ from Nella's. He listened with
approving interest, but without comment, until the gondolier had
finished