"Do you know, you young scamp, that I can take you away to Corte or to Bastia? I shall put you in a dungeon, on a bed of straw, with your feet in irons, and I shall guillotine you if you do not tell me where Gianetto Sanpiero is." The child burst out laughing at this ridiculous menace. "My father is Mateo Falcone," he repeated. "Adjutant, do not let us embroil ourselves with Mateo," one of the soldiers whispered. Gamba was evidently embarrassed. He talked in a low voice with his soldiers, who had already been all over the house. It was not a lengthy operation, for a Corsican hut only consists of a single square room. The furniture comprises a table, benches, boxes and utensils for cooking and hunting. All this time little Fortunato caressed his cat, and seemed, maliciously, to enjoy the confusion of his cousin and the soldiers. One soldier came up to the haycock. He looked at the cat and carelessly stirred the hay with his bayonet, shrugging his shoulders as though he thought the precaution ridiculous. Nothing moved, and the face of the child did not betray the least agitation. The adjutant and his band were in despair; they looked solemnly out over the plain, half inclined to return the way they had come; but their chief, convinced that threats would produce no effect upon the son of Falcone, thought he would make one last effort by trying the effect of favours and presents. "My boy," he said, "you are a wide-awake young dog, I can see. You will get on. But you play a dangerous game with me; and, if I did not want to give pain to my cousin Mateo, devil take it! I would carry you off with me." "Bah!" "But, when my cousin returns I shall tell him all about it, and he will give you the whip till he draws blood for having told me lies." "How do you know that?" "You will see. But, look here, be a good lad and I will give you something." "You had better go and look for Gianetto in the _mâquis_, cousin, for if you stay any longer it will take a cleverer fellow than you to catch him." The adjutant drew a watch out of his pocket, a silver watch worth quite ten crowns. He watched how little Fortunato's eyes sparkled as he looked at it, and he held out the watch at the end of its steel chain. "You rogue," he said, "you would like to have such a watch as this hung round your neck, and to go and walk up and down the streets of Porto-Vecchio as proud as a peacock; people would ask you the time, and you would reply, 'Look at my watch!'" "When I am grown up, my uncle the corporal will give me a watch." "Yes; but your uncle's son has one already--not such a fine one as this, however--for he is younger than you." The boy sighed. "Well, would you like this watch, kiddy?"