mpt made to work the
mine, for there is a large, square, yawning hole, with cleanly-cut
edges and patches of red streaked with brown, like leprous spots,
along its sterile walls; and among the nettles at the bottom
enormous blocks of marble of the variety known in commerce as
_griotte_, condemned blocks of which no use can be made for lack of
a proper road leading to the quarry, or a harbor which would enable
boats to approach the hill; and, more than all else, for lack of
sufficient funds to supply either of those needs. So the quarry,
although within a few cable-lengths of the shore, is abandoned,
useless, and a nuisance, like Robinson Crusoe's boat, with the same
drawbacks as to availability. These details of the distressing
history of our only territorial possession were furnished me by an
unhappy survivor, shivering with fever, whom I found in the
basement of the yellow house trying to cook a piece of kid over the
acrid smoke of a fire of mastic branches.

"That man, who comprises the whole staff of the _Caisse
Territoriale_ in Corsica, is Paganetti's foster-father, an
ex-lighthouse-keeper who does not mind loneliness. The Governor
leaves him there partly from charity, and also because an
occasional letter from the Taverna quarry produces a good effect at
meetings of shareholders. I had great difficulty in extorting any
information from that three-fourths wild man, who gazed at me
suspiciously, in ambush behind his goat-skin _pelone_; he did
tell me, however, unintentionally, what the Corsicans understand by
the term railroad, and why they assume this mysterious manner when
they mention it. While I was trying to find out whether he knew
anything of the scheme for an iron road in the island, the old
fellow did not put on the cunning smile I had observed in his
compatriots, but said to me quite naturally, in very good French,
but in a voice as rusty and stiff as an old lock that is seldom
used:

"'Oh! moussiou, no need of railroads here--'

"'But they are very valuable, very useful to make communication
easier.'

"'I don't say that ain't true; but with the gendarmes we don't need
anything more.'

"'The gendarmes?'

"'To be sure.'

"The misunderstanding lasted fully five minutes, before I finally
comprehended that the secret police are known here as t