Mezzoni the Brigand — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

142 MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. CHAPTER XV. RUNNING THE GANTLET. The reader will remember that we left Walter Hammond and Marion Bray on the mountain side, just about to perform the most hazardous part of their trying journey. The two rough-looking men who passed near to them, but who did not see them, and whom Walter feared might fall in with the wounded robbers, were really members of the band who had been engaged in performing some day duty in the neighboring val- leys, under the guise of vine-dressers. They had been for some time absent from the cave, as he had never seen them before, and they were now on their way thither. In a short time after pass- ing the fugitives, these men came upon the two wounded brigands. They were hurriedly informed of the whole affair, and taking the rifles of their invalided companions, they started back, with great confidence, to overtake the fugitives. The change of their course, from a direct descent of the mountain to a more lateral one, was now of great ad- vantage, as Walter had hoped, for the new pursuers were at once thrown off their track; and in half an hour after their start were heard calling to each other far below where the fugitives were, and just in the old line which they had been pursuing. “How fortunate that we changed our course,’’ said Marion. ‘‘You think of every thing.’’ ‘Providence is on our side,’ said Walter, gayly, “but we will ‘keep our powder dry.’ ”’ comicboo