"No. He is alive." "Gran Dio!" Tolomeo started from his seat in a somewhat theatrical manner. "What is this you say, signor?" "I say that he is alive, but in hiding. I tell you this because I know you like Bernard and appreciate his kindness to you." "Yes! The boy is a good boy. He has been very kind to me. Although," added Tolomeo, with a somewhat cynical air, "I do not deserve it. Ah, signor, the want of money makes us all sad rascals." "That depends upon ourselves," said Durham, somewhat stiffly. "No man need be a rascal unless he likes." "Money can make a good man or a bad one," insisted the Italian. "I don't agree with you. But this is not what I wish to talk about, Signor Tolomeo. You are pleased that Bernard is alive." "Very pleased. But I trust he will escape." "Ah! Then you believe he is guilty of the crime." "He--or the other one." "What other one?" asked Durham, sharply. Tolomeo looked directly at the lawyer. "Before I speak out," he said, "it will set my mind at rest to know what you mean." "Does that hint you want money?" "Money is always a good thing, and I need it badly," said Guiseppe shrugging, "but, as this regards my own nephew, I am willing to aid him without money. I loved my sister, his mother, and she was badly treated by that old man!" Tolomeo's eyes flashed. "He insulted her, and we--the Tolomeo nobles--were great lords in Siena when your England was wild forest and savage peoples." "Did you tell Sir Simon this when you saw him on that night?" The Italian started up in some alarm. "What? You say I was with this English miser when he died?" "No, I don't say that. But I say you were at the house on that very night, and about the time the murder was committed. For all I know, signor, you may be able to say who killed him." Guiseppe, twisting his hat in his hands, looked keenly at Durham with his dark eyes. "Signor, be explicit," he said. "I'll explain myself thoroughly," said Durham. "You can sit down again, signor. Bernard," he continued, when the Italian obeyed this request, "inherits his grandfather's property, and, of course the title. He wants to help you, and proposes to give you five hundred a year as soon as possible." "Ah! That is good of him," said Tolomeo, gratefully. "But," went on Durham, with emphasis, "Bernard cannot give you this income until he is formally put in possession of the estate; and he cannot take possession of the estate until he is cleared from this charge of murder. Now you can help me to clear him." "Signor," said the Italian at once, "I thought Bernard was dead; that, as the papers said, he had been drowned crossing the river. But now that I know he is alive, you can command my services without money. All the same," added Tolomeo, smiling and showing his white teeth, "a little five hundred a year will make me a great lord in Siena, to which town I shall return." "After helping Bernard?" warned Durham.