His arms were beginning to ache, and he began to count the
strokes. He would strike a hundred more, and then he would rest. He
kept up the effort steadily to the end, and then laid down the bar and
passed his handkerchief over his forehead. Sabina watched him and
looked up into his face when he turned to her.
"You are tired," she said, rising and standing beside him, so as to
speak more easily.
"I shall be quite rested in a few minutes," he answered, "and then I
will go on."
"You must be very strong," said Sabina.
Then she told him what she had been thinking of, and how it was
certain that the Baron would bring a large force of men to set them
free. Malipieri listened to the end, and nodded thoughtfully. She was
right, supposing that nothing had happened to Sassi and Masin; but he
knew his own man, and judged that he must have made some desperate
attempt to stop the inflowing water in the outer chamber, and it was
not impossible that poor old Sassi, in his devotion to Sabina, had
made a mad effort to help Masin, and that they had both lost their
lives together. If that had happened, there was no one to tell
Volterra where Sabina was. Enquiries at Sassi's house would be
useless; all that could be known would be that he had gone out between
four and five o'clock, that he had called at the house in the Via
Ludovisi, and that he and Sabina had driven away together.
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