Mezzoni the Brigand — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

164 MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. the sleeping draught, died of his wound before he reached the cave, while the fore-arm of the other was shattered and useless for life. Of the second two, who took up the pursuit, one was seriously wounded in the thigh and lamed for life, while the other, whom Marion saw throw up his hands and fall on his face, was shot through the heart. The bully of the gang, Vecchio, did not live to tell the story of his encounter with the young American. Three of the robbers thus lost their lives, and two were maimed for life. The severest check they had met with for years, and all through the cool courage of one man. “What was your most trying exigency?’’ asked the colonel of Walter. ‘“‘It was where, I presume, you would least think,”’ he replied. ‘‘And that was?’’ ‘With the dog.’’ ‘“How so?”’ ‘“‘T had never used a knife upon a living thing, and it quite unnerved me for a moment.”’ ‘No wonder,” said the colonel. _ “T have been accustomed to the use of a pistol, but not the knife!’’ ‘Your training has served you well.’’ ‘‘Oh, father, it was horrible, though, to see those men fall when Walter fired,’’ said Marion. ‘“‘It was in self-defense, my child.’’ No secret was made of the deliverance of the Eng- lish lady from the brigands’ cave, and the papers made quite a hero and heroine of the two, giving to Walter Hammond the credit which was so justly his due, for the very trying and well-managed es- cape from the banditti, Eomicboo “S;Ecom