Aunt Jane's Nieces Abroad
Then he caught a word or two of English that made him start. He went to
the door between the two rooms and threw it open, finding himself face
to face with Count Ferralti.
CHAPTER XVIII
GUESTS OF THE BRIGAND
"Good morning, Count," said Uncle John, cheerfully.
The other stared at him astonished.
"Good heavens! Have they got you, too?" he exclaimed.
"Why, I'm visiting his excellency, Il Duca, if that's what you mean,"
replied Mr. Merrick. "But whether he's got me, or I've got him, I
haven't yet decided."
The young man's jaw was tied in a bandage and one of his eyes was black
and discolored. He looked agitated and miserable.
"Sir, you are in grave danger; we are both in grave danger," he
announced, "unless we choose to submit to being robbed by this rascally
brigand."
"Then," observed Uncle John, "let's submit."
"Never! Not in a thousand years!" cried Ferralti, wildly. And then this
singular young man sank into a chair and burst into tears.
Uncle John was puzzled. The slender youth--for he was but a youth in
spite of his thin moustaches--exhibited a queer combination of courage
and weakness; but somehow Uncle John liked him better at that moment
than he ever had before. Perhaps because he now realized he had unjustly
suspected him.
"You seem to have been hurt, Count," he remarked.
"Why, I was foolish enough to struggle, and that brute Tommaso pounded
me," was the reply. "You were wise to offer no resistance, sir."
"As for that, I hadn't a choice," said Uncle John, smiling. "When did
they get you, Ferralti?"
"Last evening. I walked in the garden of the hotel and they threw a sack
over my head. I resisted and tried to cry out. They beat me until I was
insensible and then brought me here, together with my travelling cases,
which they removed from my room to convey the impression that I had gone
away voluntarily. When I awakened from my swoon I was in this room,
with the doctor bending over me."
"The doctor?"
"Oh, they have a doctor in this accursed den, as well as a priest and a
lawyer.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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