Mezzoni the Brigand — page 169: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 161 CHAPTER XVII. A HERO AND HEROINE. Colonel Manlius Bray had _ suffered intolerable anxiety during the necessary delay between his re- turn to Naples and the receipt of the funds to enable him to pay for the release of his daughter from cap- tivity. Though he had faith in the robber’s word, still in -his nervous and very natural anxiety he imagined all sorts of troubles as being the hourly ex- perience of his child. His astonishment cannot be adequately described when he was awakened from sleep, on that morning before daylight, and beheld both his daughter and Walter Hammond. They had come directly from the police station, in the Strada St. Carlo, where the market man had left them. Walter had taken the precaution to stop first at the police headquarters to oive information of their escape and to suggest the possibility of pursuit, even within the city itself, so bold were these brigands. The two fugitives presented a singular appearance when the colonel first looked upon them, and he rubbed his eyes again and again, scarcely believing that he was actually awake. His daughter was in male attire, and so travel-stained and soiled as to be scarcely recognizable, while her companion, who naturally had a heavy beard, had been unshaven for weeks, looking more like an escaped convict than a gentleman. Until this very moment the father had thought that Walter was gone to Amer- ica, which also added greatly to the mystery of the whole affair, Eomicbooks.co m:.