Page 346 - tender-is-the-night

Now they came into a courtyard on all four sides of
which outer stairways mounted to the chambers above. As
they crossed the flags a groaning, hissing, booing sound
went up from the loiterers in the courtyard, voices full of
fury and scorn. Dick stared about.
‘What’s that?’ he demanded, aghast.
One of the carabinieri spoke to a group of men and the
sound died away.
They came into the court-room. A shabby Italian lawyer
from the Consulate spoke at length to the judge while Dick
and Collis waited aside. Some one who knew English turned
from the window that gave on the yard and explained the
sound that had accompanied their passage through. A na-
tive of Frascati had raped and slain a fiveyear-old child and
was to be brought in that morning—the crowd had assumed
it was Dick.
In a few minutes the lawyer told Dick that he was freed—
the court considered him punished enough.
‘Enough!’ Dick cried. ‘Punished for what?’
‘Come along,’ said Collis. ‘You can’t do anything now.’
‘But what did I do, except get into a fight with some taxi-
men?’
‘They claim you went up to a detective as if you were go-
ing to shake hands with him and hit him—‘
‘That’s not true! I told him I was going to hit him—I
didn’t know he was a detective.’
‘You better go along,’ urged the lawyer.
‘Come along.’ Collis took his arm and they descended
the steps.

346 Tender is the Night