"
"Then, if we should happen to be belated, we might have an adventure?"
I said.
"Indeed, it is not at all unlikely, Monsieur. No doubt the man is
desperate, and if he saw a chance to get a change of clothing, a mule,
and some money, he might risk attacking even two travellers, from
behind. But we shall arrive at Aosta before dark, and I am afraid----"
"I'll warrant you're not afraid of danger."
"That we shall get no such sport, Monsieur."
Even as he spoke there came, with the wind blowing up from the valley,
a loud, long-drawn shriek of fear or distress, uttered by a woman. We
looked at each other, Joseph and I, and then without a word set off
running down the hill, in the direction of the cry. Again it came, "A
moi-a moi!" We could hear the words, now, and then a wild,
inarticulate scream.
I bounded down the winding white road, where the evening shadows lay,
and Joseph followed, somehow dragging Finois--at least, I am sure that
he would not have left his beloved beast behind,--and so at last we
turned a sharp bend of the path, thickly fringed with a dense wood,
where suddenly Innocentina sprang almost into my arms. She ran to me,
blindly, not seeing who it was, but knowing by instinct that help was
at hand. "A robber--a murderer!" she panted. "Oh, save--" and then, I
think, she fainted.
I have a vague recollection of tossing her to Joseph, and plunging
into the dim wood, where something moved, half-hidden by the crowding
trees.
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