Mezzoni the Brigand — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

14 MEZZONI THE: BRIGAND. had there taken a vehicle for Pzestum, some twenty miles distant, to visit the famous temples there, and which are more than two thousand years old. He had stopped and breakfasted at a little inn by the road-side in Salerno, and was to return to Naples by a more direct route, so as to reach his hotel the same night. It is a lonely and dreary road, and the traveler had put a pair of pocket pistols in his overcoat, though he scarcely thought it worth while to do so. But the Englishman was not destined to reach Pees- tum on that occasion. About one league beyond Salerno the vehicle was suddenly brought to a stand- still, the driver ordered to dismount, as he was rid- ing one of the two horses, and to lie with his face to the ground. The terrified man obeyed instantly. The door of the vehicle was then thrown open, and the traveler was coolly ordered to get out by a man who presented himself before him, armed to the teeth. As the Englishman got out of the vehicle he man- aged to seize one of the pistols, a small single-barrel weapon of the old style, which was in his overcoat lying upon the seat by his side. This he put into his coat-pocket, and then complied with the robber’s order. Once outside of the coach he found himself confronted with but one individual, and felt that by waiting for the proper moment, he could use his pis- tol to such effect as to wound or kill the robber. ‘You have no valuables about you,” said the ban- dit, very quietly, holding his revolver cocked in his hand ready for use. | “Very true.”’ ‘| shall trouble you to sign a paper which I have here, and we will send it back to your friends in this ~comicbooks.co