"If I could get him into my arms, I could carry him alone." Marietta sprang to her feet, all her energy and strength returning in a moment.

The three carried the unconscious man easily enough to the bench and laid him down, as he had lain before, with his head on the leathern cushion.

Then Nella set to work quickly and skilfully, for she hoped to dress the wound while he was still insensible.

Marietta helped her, instinctively doing what was right.

It was a hideous wound.
"It will heal more quickly than you think," said Nella, confidently.
"The burning has cauterised it." Marietta, delicately reared and unused to such sights, would have felt faint if the man had not been Zorzi.