The Etruscan Net by Michael Gilbert Read Free Book Online Page B

We are using rifles, as you see, so they are not easy to hit. Sometimes they fly five or six times. This one, I think, is tired.’
    Broke stooped down, caught the bird, and wrung its neck. The boys shouted in anger, and Broke realized that if they attacked him he would be in trouble. The leader of the boys was as tall as he was, and probably stronger. The other two nearly as strong.
    Out of the concrete hut beside the tumulus shambled the untidy figure of a man. He looked as if he had been wakened by the noise from the siesta which should follow a heavy lunch. His red face was moist and fringed with a stubble of grey beard.
    He said, ‘What the hell’s going on? What are you shouting about, Lorenzo?’ And, as his bleary eyes took in Broke, ‘Who is this man?’
    The tall boy said, sulkily, ‘He killed our bird. No one asked him to interfere.’
    ‘What are you doing here?’
    Broke took Professor Bronzini’s card out of his wallet, and said, ‘I am here by invitation of the owner. He invited me to inspect the digging.’
    ‘I know nothing of that,’ said the man. He seemed to be working himself up into a rage. ‘You must leave, now. At once.’ When Broke held out the card he pushed it away, repeating, ‘Now, at once.’
    ‘I’ve come quite a long way to see these tombs,’ said Broke. ‘The owner has invited me. Until he withdraws his invitation, I have no intention of going away.’
    His coldness added to their fire. The man said, the edge of venom showing plainly in his voice. ‘If you do not go quickly, perhaps you will be made to go, and perhaps it will not be so pleasant for you. You understand the frog march. That is not very dignified for the frog.’
    The boys laughed. Broke said, ‘If you do anything so stupid, I promise that you will be very sorry for it.’
    ‘It is you who are going to be sorry,’ said the man. He was spitting in his excitement. ‘Take his arms, two of you.’
    The smaller boys had been working their way behind him. Now they jumped at him, grabbing an arm each. Broke stood very still. The man came up and thrust his face close to Broke’s; so close that he could smell the wine on his breath, and see the spittle which dribbled from his open mouth into the hog-bristles of his beard. ‘Now,’ he said, ‘you will go, whether it pleases your lordship or not.’
    Broke twisted to the right, and as the resistance built up, reversed the motion, tearing his right arm free, and hit the man hard in the stomach. The man doubled up, mouthing obscenities, and a cool voice said, ‘Would someone kindly explain what this entertainment signifies?’
    The car must have come very quietly along the rutted track. Danilo Ferri had got out of it and the giant Arturo sat beside the driving wheel. The boys had released Broke, and were standing in a sheepish group, reduced suddenly in size to naughty children. Ferri said to the tall boy, ‘Well, Lorenzo?’
    The old man had got his breath back. He said, ‘Our orders–’ Ferri ignored him. He continued to talk to the tall boy. ‘Were your orders to assault a friend of your master, who comes here, with his permission? You have earned a whipping, all three of you.’
    The boys said nothing, but stared down at the ground, scuffling the dust with their feet.
    ‘Be off.’ They went, without looking back. The red-faced man said, sulkily, ‘How was I to know?’ but he sounded frightened, too.
    The card had fallen to the ground, Ferri stooped to pick it up.
    ‘It seems that he showed you this card. Are you unable to read?’
    The man said nothing. Ferri handed the card to Broke, and said, ‘I am grieved that you should have had such an uncivil reception. Had I known you were coming, I would have been at pains to accompany you myself.’ As they walked across to the tumulus he added, ‘They are primitive people here. They have to be dealt with in a primitive way. But that is no excuse for Labro’s behaviour. I have long suspected that he was a