It was the least he could have done. My father is also in Paradise."

"Requiescat!" ejaculated the carpenter devoutly.

"Amen," answered Toto. "He killed him with a mattock."

"It was well done," observed Gigi with satisfaction. "I suppose," he
continued after a pause, "that if anybody went down there now, you
could let in the water."

"Why should I? I do not care what they do. If they send for me, I may
serve them. If they think they can do without me, let them try. I do
not care a cabbage!"

"Perhaps not," Gigi answered thoughtfully. "But it must be a fine
satisfaction to know that you can drown them all, like rats in a
hole."

"Yes," said Toto, "it is a fine satisfaction."

"And even to know that you can make the water come before they begin,
so that they can never do anything without you."

"That too," assented the mason.

"They would pay you a great deal to help them, if they could not pump
the water out. There is no one else in Rome who knows how to turn it
off."

Gigi made the remark tentatively, but Toto did not answer.