Rocky Ford enterprise., 1913-01-03
c6e
ADVENTURE
or TIE
RED CIRCLE
(Continued.)

Holmes. "T rather fancy that this lady
may be as anxious to give us infor-
nation as we can be to get 1t. You
understand, madam, that your hus-
band will be arrested and tried for
the death of the man who lies before
'us? What you say may be used in
evidence. But If you think that he
has acted from motives which are not
criminal. and which he would wish to
have known, then you cannot serve
him better than by telling us the
whole story"
Nov that Gorgiano is dead we fear
nothing" said the lady. "He was a
devil and a monster. and there can
be no Judge In the world who would
punish my husband for having killed
him."
in that case" said Holmes. my
suggestion Is that We lock this door,
leave things as we found them, go
with this lady to her room. and form
our opinion after we have heard what
It is that she has to say to u.s."
Half an hour later we were seated.
all four. in the small sitting-room Of
Signora Lucca. listening to her re-
markable narrative of those sinister
events. the ending of which We had
chanced to witness. She spoke in
rapid and fluent but very unconven-
tional English. which. for the sake of
clearness. will make grammatical.
Il was born in Posilippo. near Ma
ples." said she, "and was the daugh-
ter Of Augusta Barelli. who was the
chief lawyer and once the deputy of
that part. Gennaro was in my fathers
employment. and ! came to love him.
as any woman must. He had neither
money nor position-nothing but his
beauty and strength and energy-so
my father forbade the match. We fed
together. were, married at Bari. and
sold my Jewels to gain the money
which would take us to America. This
was four years ago. and we have been
In New York ever since.
Fortune was very good to US at
first. Gennaro was able to do a serv-
ice to an Italian gentleman-he saved
him from some ruffians in the place
called the Bowery. and so made
powerful friend. His name was Tito
Castalotte. and he was the senior
partner of the great firm of Castalotte
and Zamba, who are the chief fruit
importers of New York. Signor Zam-
ba is an invalid. and our new friend
iCastalotte has all power within the
firm. which employs more than three
hundred men. He took my husband
into his employment. made him head
of department, and showed his
goodwill towards him in every way.
Signor Castalotte was bachelor,
and / believe that he felt as II Cen
naro was his son, and both my hus-
band and / loved him as II he were
our father. We had taken and fur
nished a little house in Brooklyn,
and our whole future seemed assured,
when that black cloud appeared which
was soon to overspread our sky.
"One night, when Gennaro returned
from his work, he brought fellow
countryman back with him. His name
was Gorgiano. and he had come also
from Posilippo. He was huge man.
as you can testify. for you have looked
upon his corpse. Not only was his
body that OF giant, but everything
about him was grotesque, gigantic and
terrifying. His voice was like thun-
der in our little house. There was
scarce room for the whirl of his great
arms as he talked. His thoughts, his
emotions. his passions. all were ex-
aggerated and monstrous. He talked.
or rather roared. with such energy
that others could but sit and listen,
cowed with the mighty stream of
words. His eyes bIazed at you and
held you at his mercy. He was ter
rible and wonderful man. / thank
God that he Ia dead!
He came again and again. Yet /
was aware that Gennaro was no more
happy than l was in his presence. My
poor husband would sit pale and list
less, listening to the endless rawlings
upon politics and upon social ques-
tions which made up our visitors con-
versation. -Gennaro said nothing, but
| who knew him SO well could read
In his face some emotion which / had
never seen there before. At first
thought that 1t was dislike. And then,
gradually. understood that It was
more than dislike. 1t was fear-a
deep. secret, shrinking fear That
night-the night that read his terror
II put my arms round him and i'm
plored him by his love for me and by
al that he held dear to hold nothing
from me. and to tell me why this huge
nan overshadowed him SO.
He told me. and my own heart