Late that night Dr. Marini, the doctor of the commune of Marechiaro, was
roused from sleep in his house in the Corso by a violent knocking on his
street door. He turned over in his bed, muttered a curse, then lay still
for a moment and listened. The knocking was renewed more violently.
Evidently the person who stood without was determined to gain admission.
There was no help for it. The good doctor, who was no longer young,
dropped his weary legs to the floor, walked across to the open window,
and thrust his head out of it. A man was standing below.
"What is it? What do you want?" said the doctor, in a grumbling voice.
"Is it another baby? Upon my word, these--"
"Signor Dottore, come down, come down instantly! The signore of Monte
Amato, the signore of the Casa del Prete has had an accident. You must
come at once. I will go to fetch a donkey."
The doctor leaned farther out of the window.
"An accident! What--?"
But the man, a fisherman of Marechiaro, was already gone, and the doctor
saw only the narrow, deserted street, black with the shadows of the tall
houses.
He drew in quickly and began to dress himself with some expedition. An
accident, and to a forestiere! There would be money in this case. He
regretted his lost sleep less now and cursed no more, though he thought
of the ride up into the mountains with a good deal of self-pity. It was
no joke to be a badly paid Sicilian doctor, he thought, as he tugged at
his trousers buttons, and fastened the white front that covered the
breast of his flannel shirt, and adjusted the cuffs which he took out of
a small drawer. Without lighting a candle he went down-stairs, fumbled
about, and found his case of instruments. Then he opened the street door
and waited, yawning on the stone pavement. In two or three minutes he
heard the tripping tip-tap of a donkey's hoofs, and the fisherman came up
leading a donkey apparently as disinclined for a nocturnal flitting as
the doctor.
"Ah, Giuseppe, it's you, is it?"
"Si, Signor Dottore!"
"What's this accident?"
The fisherman looked grave and crossed himself.
"Oh, signore, it is terrible! They say the poor signore is dead!"
"Dead!" exclaimed the doctor, startled. "You said is was an accident.
Dead you say now?"
"Signore, he is dead beyond a doubt. I was going to the fishing when I
heard dreadful cries in the water by the inlet--you know, by Salvatore's
terreno!"