They have
nothing to do with police soldiers, nor with the carabineers.
Toto made Gigi tell him everything he knew. At the porter's suggestion
Volterra had sent for the mason, as the only man who knew anything
about the "lost water," and Toto had agreed, with apparent reluctance,
to do what he could at once, as soon as he had satisfied himself that
Malipieri had really made another opening by which the statues could
be reached. Toto laid down conditions, however. He pretended that he
must expose himself to great danger, and insisted upon being paid
fifty francs for the job. Furthermore, he obtained from Volterra, in
the presence of the porter as witness, a formal promise that his
grandfather's bones should have Christian burial, with a fine hearse
and feathers, and a permanent grave in the cemetery of Saint Lawrence,
which latter is rather an expensive luxury, beyond the means of the
working people. But the Baron made no objection. The story would look
very well in a newspaper paragraph, as a fine illustration of the
Senator's liberality as well as of his desire to maintain the forms of
religion. It would please everybody, and what will do that is cheap at
any price, in politics.
The result of these negotiations had of course been that the water had
subsided in the vaults within a few hours, and Toto even found a way
of draining the outer cellars, which had been flooded to the depth of
a couple of feet, because the first breach made by Malipieri had
turned out to be an inch or two lower than the level of the overflow
shaft.
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