Mezzoni the Brigand — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. | 171 would have been frustrated. But as it was, no spies had been on the watch to report the movement of a force at such an unusual hour, and hence the expedi- tion met with no obstacle on the route. The plan thus far worked like machinery, and the men entered into the spirit of the business with marked individual interest. It was just about half an hour before daylight when the three sections of men joined each other, about sixty in number, and prepared for the last ad- vance upon the robbers’ stronghold. Not a voice was heard. The strictest silence had been enjoined, and the command moved stealthily upon its way through the rough path. Arms were carefully ex- auztined, and instructions reiterated to one and all. The gray of the morning was just appearing in the east as the foremost men came upon an outlying sentry of the gang, who was asleep with his back to a rock. He was instantly seized, and told that if he opened his mouth to give an alarm he should die. A mo- ment later, however, he tried to do so, for which a dagger was struck to his heart in an instant, and his body cast to one side as though it had been that of adog. He had not anticipated such summary treatment, and his recklessness had cost him his life. ‘His voice had not been raised sufficiently to reach those at the cave, where another of his comrades was sleeping at his post, and so he also was secured with equal promptness, his mouth being adroitly covered so that he could not utter a sound. At the same time the whole force was quietly deploying upon the plateau, without so much as awaking a single sleeper inside the cave. The place was vir- tually at the mercy of the attacking party. comicbooks (Efe)