Among the Brigands

by James De Mille

  CHAPTER VI.

  _Flight of Bob.--Difference between a tame Donkey and a wildAss.--Carried off to the Mountains.--The Headlong Course.--TheMountain Pass.--The Journey's End.--Ill-omened Place.--Confoundedby a new Terror.--The Brigands._

  When the donkey first bounded off, the feelings of Bob were nothingbut pure, unmitigated delight. As his spirited animal, roused fromhis indifference, burst through the crowd and reached the head,Bob's heart swelled with triumph. As he rushed along the road, farahead of the rest, his triumph increased. He turned his head, andwaved his hands to his friends. Then he waved his cap in the air,and shouted, "Hurrah!" Then he rode side-saddle fashion for a littlewhile, then he drew both legs up in front, and then he indulged ina series of absurd and fantastic tricks.

  All this Bob did because he supposed that he was riding aheadof his friends, and that they were following him, and admiringhim. He had not made any calculation as to the great rate ofspeed at which his donkey was carrying him, and had no ideahow quickly he was leaving all the rest behind. So, while hehad been indulging in his pranks for the amusement of thosewhom he supposed to be following him, he was, in reality,already beyond the reach of their eyes.

  For his donkey was an animal very far superior to the common herd.He was not a donkey--he was an ass--spirited, slender, sinewy, andfleet as a race-horse. There was something so peculiarly easy inthe ass's gait that it deceived the rider. It seemed to him to bea gentle ambling trot, or something midway between that and acanter. In reality this easy pace was exceedingly swift, and beforelong Bob was out of sight of his friends. This discovery burstupon him as he turned, with the intention of shouting back somenonsense to them, when, to his utter amazement and consternation,he saw no signs of them whatever.

  It must be confessed that the shock which this discovery gave toBob was a very powerful one. He looked all around in anxiouscuriosity, with the endeavor to comprehend his situation. His firstthought was, that some accident had happened to the party whichwas delaying them; but soon he became aware of his own tremendousprogress, and understood the true state of the case'. He was nowin a place where the road ran straight for over a mile. At the endof this it turned. As Bob reached this turning-place, he lookedback again, and far away, just at the entrance upon the straightpiece of road, he saw the party coming. A few seconds and he wasonce more carried out of sight.

  And now Bob began to feel that his situation was a serious one. Itwas not pleasant to be carried away in this manner, in a strangecountry, on the back of an animal like this. Had it been a runawayhorse, he would have felt less troubled. He would, in fact, havefelt quite at home, for he had been frequently run away with onhorseback. He understood horses, but of asses he knew nothing. Ahorse was to some extent a sensible animal. He would run away, andin due time would come to a pause. But an ass! Was an ass possessedof any sense of decency--any conscience? Would the well-knownobstinacy of the ass be shown on an occasion like this? and wouldthis ass, merely out of that obstinacy, keep on running for allthe rest of the day? It was a startling thought.

  Bob all this time had been making desperate efforts to stop theass. He was considerably embarrassed by the fact that there wasno bridle, and no way of getting at the ass, so as to exert hisstrength upon him. He tried various ways. First he pulled at hislong ears. For this the ass cared not a whit. He did not seemto be conscious of it. Then he wound his hands about his neck,and tried to pull his head back. The effect was useless. Bob'sstrength was unavailing. He could no more move that bent andstubborn neck, than he could straighten the crooked fluke of ananchor. Then he pounded wildly upon the neck, shoulders, andflanks of the ass, and kicked against his sides. This, too, wasuseless, for his puny blows seemed to affect the animal no morethan so many puffs of wind. Then Bob tried other means. He satupright, and suddenly called, in a short, sharp, peremptory voice,"Whoa!" This he repeated over and over, but without any success;and at length he reflected that _whoa_ was English, a languagewhich, of course, an Italian ass could not understand.

  While Bob had been putting forth these efforts, the ass bad beenflying along at an undiminished rate of speed, and the countryswept past him on either side. He passed long lines of trees bythe roadside, he saw field after field flit by, and the distanthills went slowly along out of the line of his vision. Hitherto hehad met with no one at all along the road, nor had he seen anycattle of any kind. His efforts to arrest the ass had been fruitless,and he gave them up, and looked forward for some opportunity toget assistance. He remembered that the road had no towns or innsbetween Paestum and Salerno, and he began to fear that he would becarried all the way to the latter place before he could stop.

  His fears, however, were unfounded; for now an event occurred whichmade him full of other thoughts. It was a sudden change in thecourse of his flight. Thus far they had been going along the mainroad. Now, however, they came to a place where a road led away onthe right, apparently to the mountains. Without the slightest pauseor hesitation, but with undiminished speed, and the headlong flightof one familiar with the way, the ass turned from the main road,and ran into this side road.

  The anxiety and fear which Bob had thus far felt were trifling,indeed, compared with the emotions that now seized upon him. Thusfar he had not felt altogether cut off from his friends. He knewall the time that they were behind him, and that at the worst hecould not be carried farther than Salerno, and that they would comeup with him there, and thus they would all be reunited before dark.But now he was suddenly carried off helplessly from the main road,and in a moment seemed severed from his friends. Where was he going?When would the ass stop?

  Before him arose the mountainous country, not many miles away, thedeclivities in some places slight and gradual, in other placesabrupt. Cultivated spots appeared here and there, and white villages,and old castles. It was not, however, an inviting country, and thenearer he drew to it the less he liked it. The road here was notso broad, and smooth, and easy as the one he had just left, butwas narrow and rough. At length he reached the skirts of themountains, and the road now began to ascend. After a while it grewsomewhat steeper, and decidedly rougher. And now Bob found, to hisimmense relief, that the pace was at last beginning to tell uponthe tough sinews of the fiery animal which he bestrode. The asscould not keep up such a pace while ascending the mountain. Graduallyhis speed slackened, and Bob at length began to look about for asoft place, where he could jump.

  But by this time the road entered what looked like a pass amongthe mountains. On one side the hill rose, wooded in some places,in others rocky; while on the other side it went down steep forabout thirty, feet, where a mountain torrent brawled, and dashedover its rocky bed. It was about here that the ass slackened hispace sufficiently for Bob to jump from his back; but just hereit was impossible to jump without the risk of breaking some ofhis bones, and he was not yet quite desperate enough to run sucha risk as that. As the road went on through the pass, it grewnarrower and steeper, quite impassable for carriages, and Onlyfit for travellers on horse or foot. The farther on it went,the rougher and steeper it became, and it went on with many awinding. No houses appeared, except at a great distance, andthose which did thus appear seemed separated by deep valleysfrom the place where he was.

  Bob could have easily dismounted from the donkey now; but hehesitated. He thought with some dismay upon the distance that laybetween him and the main road. He thought that his friends musthave passed beyond the place where he turned off, and that if hedid go back he could not hope to meet them. Besides, to go so longa distance on foot was too formidable a task just now. He hopedthat the ass had some aim in directing his course here, and thathe was seeking his home. Perhaps that home was close by. Perhapsit was some village in the mountains. If so, he might be able toobtain a mount for Salerno, and still reach that place beforenight was over.

  He hoped thug to find help--to get a horse or an ass, and alsosomething to eat, and thus set forth for Salerno. As the road woundon, and as he traversed it, he looked eagerly at every projectingc
liff before him; and as he rounded each projection he still lookedforward eagerly in search of the place, whether house or village,where he might obtain the help of which he stood in need. But theroad continued lonely. He saw no houses, no villages, in itsvicinity. He met with no living things, whether men or cattle. Itwas the loneliest path he had ever traversed.

  At last he rounded a projecting spur of the mountain; and herehe beheld a scene which was more promising. A little distanceoff there was a bridge, which crossed the torrent. Beyond thisthe mountains sloped away in an easy declivity, where appearedseveral houses. On the other side of the bridge were two men.The sight filled Bob with joy, and fearing that the ass mightonce more take it into his head to run, he at once leaped offthe animal's back, and walked towards the bridge. The ass, freedfrom his weight, trotted briskly away, and Bob followed. Thenoise of me ass trotting over the bridge roused the two men, andthey walked across and caught him. One of them then held him,and the other walked towards Bob.

  As the latter approached, Bob noticed that he was dirty and bearded,and rather shabby. He had a coarse jacket, with brass buttons; ared flannel shirt, which was open, and disclosed a hairy breast;and coarse leather breeches with leggings. A conical felt hat wason the top of his head. Thusfar he was simply the counterpart ofhundreds of other peasants in this part of the country, shepherds,drovers, wine-sellers, etc., such as he had encountered during hisdrive. But in one important respect ne was different.

  He had a gun in his hand.

  This gun at once made him seem more than a simple peasant. It madea profound impression upon Bob. And as the Italian approached, withhis eyes fixed on the new comer, a strange and very natural suspicionwas roused in Bob's mind.

  "It's a brigand!" he thought. "I'm lost!"