Mezzoni the Brigand — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 109 ‘‘T have seen. him walking up and down before the gates, but I only noticed him as a stranger.”’ “Walking up and down before the gates!’’ mut- tered Alberto to himself. ‘‘What is in the wind now?” Ten minutes afterward the man who had been fol- lowing Alberto Corrello was run against by a lame beggar, who asked his pardon for the carelessness and took his post hard by to solicit alms of those who passed that way. The stranger swore a good round English oath at the annoyance, for the beggar had put his crutch upon his foot, which must have caused him some pain for a few minutes, as he limped along, visibly lame from the contact. The lame beggar seemed to pay no attention to the anger of the stranger, though any one near to him might have: heard the ragged-looking fellow mutter to himself: ‘‘An Englishman, I thought so.’’ As the stranger had so lately watched Alberto Corrello, so now the lame beggar slowly followed and watched the stranger, keeping him clearly in sight along the crowded Strada di Roma, until he saw him enter into the Plaza del Plebiscito, and pass from there into the Strada St. Carlo. Here he saw the man, after he had lingered for a few mo- ments gazing at the busy scene exhibited in the erand square, at last enter the shop of Woolf, & Co., the Jewish dealers in gold and silver ornaments and precious stones. The lame beggar seemed to have accomplished his purpose, for he now turned away, and soon after disappeared among the crowd who were wending their way toward the National Mu- seum. Eomicbooks (Efe)