[Adaptweb-general] E dinner in this infernal tavern, and we have bespoken i

[Colasuonno S. <lat...@la...>]

At all proper on my part----" "I see. With you women who live in towns,
your great anxiety is to be proper. We village women only think of what
is kind." "But it's so late! And then what will your brother think of
me?" "He'll think his friends have not forsaken him, and that will give
him courage to bear his sufferings." "And my father? He'll be so
anxious!" "He knows you are with me. Come! Make up your mind. You were
looking at his picture this morning," she added, with a sly smile. "No!
Really and truly, I don't dare, Colomba! Think of the bandits who are
there." "Well, what matter? The bandits don't know you. And you were
longing to see some." "Oh, dear!" "Come, signorina, settle something. I
can't leave you alone here. I don't know what might happen to you. Let
us go on to see Orso, or else let us go back to the village together. I
shall see my brother again. God knows when--never, perhaps!" "What's
that you are saying, Colomba? Well, well, let us go! But only for a
minute, and then we'll get home at once." Colomba squeezed her hand, and
without making any reply walked on so quickly that Miss Lydia could
hardly keep up with her. She soon halted, luckily, and said to her
companion: "We won't go any farther without warning them. We might have
a bullet flying at our heads." She began to whistle through her fingers.
Soon they heard a dog bark, and the bandits' advanced sentry shortly
came in sight. This was our old acquaintance Brusco, who recognised
Colomba at once and undertook to be her guide. After many windings
through the narrow paths in the _maquis_ they were met by two men, armed
to the teeth. "Is that you, Brandolaccio?" inquired Colomba. "Where is
my brother?" "Just over there," replied the bandit. "But go quietly.
He's asleep, and for the first time since his accident. Zounds, it's
clear that where the devil gets through, a woman will get through too!"
The two girls moved forward cautiously, and beside a fire, the blaze of
which was carefully concealed by a little wall of stones built round it,
they beheld Orso, lying on a pile of heather, and covered with a
_pilone_. He was ver