Among the Brigands Read online

  CHAPTER XXV.

  _The lonely Path.--The sequestered Vale.--The old House.--A FeudalCastle.--A baronial Windmill.--A mysterious Sound.--A terribleDiscovery.--At Bay.--The Wild Beasts Lair!--What is It!--A greatBore!_

  The path by which Clive and David returned to the hotel, went downa slope of the hill into a valley, and led over a second hill,beyond which was Albano. There were no houses visible, for the townwas hidden by the hill, except, of course, the convent, which, fromits conspicuous position, was never out of sight. As they descendedinto the valley, they came to a grove of olive trees; and beyondthis there was a ruined edifice, built of stone, and apparentlylong since deserted. It was two stories in height, but the storieswere high, and it looked as though it might once have been used,for a tower of some sort. The attention of both of the boys was atonce arrested by it, and they stood and looked at it for some time.

  "I wonder what it has been," said David.

  "No doubt," said Clive, "it is the ruin of some mediaeval castle."

  "It does not have much of the look of a castle."

  "Why not?"

  "O, why, there are no architectural features in it; no battlements;it has, in fact, a rather modern air."

  "Not a bit of it," said Clive. "See those old stones grown overwith moss; and look at the ivy."

  "Yes, but look at the windows. They didn't have such large windowsin castles, you know."

  "Yes, but these windows were probably made afterwards. The placewas once a castle; but at length, of course it became deserted,and began to fall to ruins. Then somebody fixed it tip for adwelling-house, and made these windows in the walls."

  "Well, that's not improbable."

  "Not improbable! Why, I'm sure it's very natural. Look how thickthe walls are!"

  "They do seem pretty thick."

  "O, they are real castle walls; there's no doubt at all about that,"said Clive, in a positive tone. "Why, they are three feet thick,at least. And, you see, there are signs of an additional storyhaving been above it."

  "Yes, I dare say," said David, looking up. "The edges there lookragged, as though some upper portion has been knocked off."

  "And I dare say it's been a great place for brigands," said Clive.

  "O, bother brigands," said David. "For my part, I begin to thinknot only that there are no brigands now, but even that there neverhave been any such people at all.

  "Well, I won't go as far as that," said Clive, "but I certainlybegin to have my doubts about them."

  "They're all humbugs," said David.

  "All of our brigands have been total failures," said Clive.

  "Yes," said David; "they all turned out to be the most amiablepeople in the world. But come; suppose we go inside, andexplore this old ruin. It may be something famous. I wishthe guide were, here."

  "O, well look at it first all over, and then ask at the hotel."

  "Yes, that's the way."

  "But have we time?"

  "O, of course; it won't take us five minutes."

  Upon this Clive started off for the ruined structure, followedby David.

  It was, as has been said, two stories in height. In the lowerstory was a small, narrow doorway. The door was gone. There wereno windows, and it was quite dark inside. It was about twelve feetwide, and fifteen feet long. At one end were some piles of fagotsheaped together. The height was about fifteen feet. Before themthey saw a rude ladder, running up to the story above. Its feetrested near the back of the room. There was no floor to the house,but only the hard-packed earth.

  "There's nothing here," said David, looking around.

  "Let's go into the upper story," said Clive.

  To this proposal David assented quite readily; and accordingly theyboth entered, and walked towards the ladder. Clive ascended first,and David followed. In a few moments they were in the upper story.

  Here it was light, for there were two windows in front. There wasa floor, and the walls were plastered. Fragments of straw lay about,intermingled with chaff, as though the place had been used for somesort of a store-house.

  Overhead there were a number of heavy beams, which seemed toonumerous and complicated to serve merely for the support of a roof;and among them was one large, round beam, which ran across. Atthis both of the boys stared very curiously.

  "I wonder what all that can be for," asked David.

  "O, no doubt," said Clive, "it's some of the massive wood-work ofthe old castle."

  "But what was the good of it?"

  "Why, to support the roof, of course," said Clive.

  "Yes, but there is too much. They would never have needed all thatto support so small a roof. It's a waste of timber."

  "O, well, you know you mustn't expect the same ingenuity in anItalian builder that you would in an American."

  "I don't know about that. Why not? Do you mean to say that theItalians are inferior to the Americans in architecture? Pooh, man!in America there is no architecture at all; while here, in everylittle town, they have some edifice that in America would beconsidered something wonderful."

  "O, well, you know they are very clumsy in practical matters, inspite of their Artistic superiority. But apart from that I've justbeen thinking that this is only a part of some large castle, andthis lumber work was, perhaps, once the main support of a massiveroof. So, after all, it would have its use."

  David said nothing for some time. He was looking earnestly at thewood-work.

  "I'll tell you what it is," said he, at last. "I've got it. Itisn't a castle at all. It's a windmill."

  "A windmill!" exclaimed Clive, contemptuously. "What nonsense!It's an old tower--the keep of some mediaeval castle."

  "It's a windmill!" persisted David. "Look at that big beam. It'sround. See in one corner those projecting pieces. They were oncepart of some projecting wheel. Why, of course, it's a windmill.The other end of that cross-beam goes outside for the fans to beattached to it. This big cross-beam was the shaft. Of coursethat's it."

  Clive looked very much crest-fallen at this. He was unable todisprove a fact of which the evidences were now so plain; but hestruggled to maintain a little longer the respectability of hisfeudal castle.

  "Well," said he, "I dare say it may have been used afterwards fora windmill; but I am sure it was originally built as a baronialhall, some time during the middle ages. Afterwards it began to goto ruin; and then, I dare say, some miller fellow has taken possessionof the keep, and torn off the turrets and battlements, and riggedup this roof with the beams, and thus turned it into a windmill."

  "O, well, you may be right," said David. "Of course it's impossibleto tell."

  "O, but I'm sure of it," said Clive, positively.

  David laughed.

  "O, then," said he, "in that case, I've got nothing to say aboutit at all."

  In spite of his reiterated conviction in the baronial castle, Clivewas unable to prevent an expression of disgust from being discernibleon his fine face, and without another word, he turned to go down.

  David followed close after him.

  As Clive put his feet down on the nearest rung of the ladder, hewas startled by a noise below. It came from the pile of fagots,and was of the most extraordinary character. It was a shuffling,scraping, growling, snapping noise; an indescribable medley ofpeculiar sounds.

  Clive instantly drew back his foot, as though he had troddenon a snake.

  "What's the matter?" cried David, in amazement.

  "Didn't you hear it?"

  "Hear what?"

  "Why, that noise!"

  "Noise?"

  "Yes."

  "What noise?"

  Clive's eyes opened wide, and he said in a low, agitated whisper,--

  "Something's down there!"

  At this David's face turned pale. He knelt down at the opening,and bent his head over.

  The sounds, which had ceased for a moment, became once more audible.There was a quick, beating, rustling, rubbing noise among thefagots, and he could occasionally hear the rap of footfalls
on thefloor. It was too dark to see anything, for the narrow door wasthe only opening, and the end of the chamber where the fagots laywas wrapped in deep gloom.

  Clive knelt down too, and then both boys, kneeling there, listenedeagerly and intently with all their ears.

  "What is it?" asked Clive.

  "I'm rare I don't know," said David, gloomily.

  "Is it a brigand?" whispered Clive, dismally.

  "I don't know, I'm sore," said poor David, who, in spite of hisrecent declaration of his belief that all brigands were humbugs,felt something like his old trepidation at Clive's suggestion.

  They listened a little longer.

  The noise subsided for a time, and then began again. This time itwas much louder than before. There was the same rustling, rubbing,cracking, snapping sound made by something among the fagots; therewas a clatter as of feet on the hard ground; then there was a quick,reiterated rubbing; then another peculiar noise, which soundedexactly like that which a dog makes when shaking himself violentlyafter coming out of the water. After this there was a low, deepsound, midway between a yawn and a growl; then all was still.

  David and Clive raised themselves softly, and looked at one another.

  "Well?" said Clive.

  "Well?" said David.

  "I don't know," said Clive.

  "I don't know," said David.

  "What shall we do?" said Clive.

  David shook his head. Then, looking down the opening once more, heagain raised his eyes, and fixing them with an awful look on Clive,he said, in a dismal tone,--

  "It's not a brigand!"

  "No," said Clive, "I don't think it is, either."

  David looked down again; then he looked up at Clive with the sameexpression, and said in the same dismal tone as before,--

  "Clive!"

  "Well?"

  "_It's a wild beast!_"

  Clive looked back at David with eyes that expressed equal horror,and said not a word.

  "Don't you think so?" asked David.

  "Yes," said Clive.

  Then:--

  "How can we get down?" said David. do. said Clive.

  "I, don't know!" said David. do. said Clive.

  Once more the boys put their heads down to the hole and listened.The noises were soon renewed--such noises as,-- Snapping, with variations. cracking, " do. deep-breathing, " do. scratching, " do. sighing, " do. yawning, " do. growling, " do. grunting, " do. smacking, " do. thumping, " do. jerking, " do. rattling, " do. pushing, with variations, sliding, " do. shaking, " do. jerking, " do. twitching, " do. groaning, " do. pattering, " do. rolling, " do. rubbing, " do.together with many more of a similar character, all of which wentto indicate to the minds of both of the boys the presence in thatlower chamber, and close by that pile of fagots, of some animal,in a state of wakefulness, restlessness, and, as they believed, ofvigilant watchfulness and ferocity.

  "I wonder how it got there," said David. "That olive grove--that'sit--O, that's it. He saw us come in here, and followed us."

  "I don't know," said Clive. "He may have been among the fagots whenwe came in, and our coming has waked him."

  "I wonder that the guide didn't warn us."

  "O, he never thought, I suppose."

  "No; he thought we would keep by the path, and go straight to thehotel."

  "What fools we were!"

  "Well, it can't be helped now."

  "I wonder what it is," said Clive, after another anxious pause.

  "A wild beast," said David, dismally.

  "Of course; but what kind of a one?"

  "It may be a wolf."

  "I wonder if there are many wolves about here."

  "Wolves? Of course. All Italy is fall of them."

  "Yes, but this beast has hard feet. Don't you hear what a noise hemakes sometimes with his feet? A wolf's feet are like a dog's. I'mafraid it's something even worse than a wolf."

  "Something worse?"

  "Yes."

  "What can be worse?"

  "Why, a wild boar. Italy is the greatest country in the world forwild boars."

  After this there followed a long period of silence and despondency.

  Suddenly Clive grasped the upper part of the ladder, and began topull at it with all his might.

  "What are you trying to do?" asked David.

  "Why, we might draw up the ladder, and put it out of one of thewindows, you know, and get out that way--mightn't we?"

  "I don't know," said David. "We might try."

  Upon this both boys seized the ladder, and tried to pull it fromits place. But their efforts were entirely in vain. The ladder wasclumsily made out of heavy timbers, and their puny efforts did notavail to move it one single inch from its place. So they soondesisted, and turned away in despair. Clive then went to one ofthe windows, and looked down. David followed him. They looked outfor some time in silence.

  "Couldn't we let ourselves drop somehow?" asked Clive.

  David shook his head.

  "It's nearly twenty feet from the window ledge," said he, "and I'mafraid one of us might break some of our bones."

  "O, it's not so very far," said Clive. "Yes, but if we were todrop, that wild boar would hear us, and rush out in a moment."

  At this terrible suggestion, Clive turned away, and regarded Davidwith his old look of horror.

  "It's no use trying," said David; "that horrible wild boar wakedup when we entered his den. He saw us going up, and has been watchingever since for us to come down. They are the most ferocious, mostpitiless, and most cruel of all wild beasts. Why; if we had theladder down from the window, and could get to the ground, he'dpounce upon us before we could get even as far as the path."

  Clive left the window, and sat down in despair, leaning againstthe wall, while David stood staring blankly out into vacancy. Theirposition was now not merely an embarrassing one. It seemed dangerousin the extreme. From this place they saw no sign of any humanhabitation. They could not see the convent. Albano was hidden bythe hill already spoken of; nor had they any idea how far away itmight be. This path over which they had gone had not appeared likeone which was much used; and how long it might be before anypassers-by would approach was more than they could tell.

  "Well," said Clive, "we've lost our dinner, and it's my firm beliefthat we'll lose our tea, too."

  David made no reply.

  Clive arose, and walked over to him.

  "Dave," said he, "look here. I'm getting desperate. I've agreat mind to go down the ladder as quietly as possible, andthen run for it."

  "No, don't--don't," cried David, earnestly.

  "Well, I'm not going to stay here and starve to death," said Clive.

  "Pooh! don't be impatient," said David. "Of course they'll hunt usup, and rescue us. Only wait a little longer."

  "Well, I don't know. If they don't come soon, I'll certainlyventure down."

  After an hour or so, during which no help came, Clive did as hesaid, and, in spite of David's remonstrances, ventured down. Hewent about half way. Then there was a noise of so peculiar acharacter that he suddenly retreated up again, and remarked toDavid, who all the time had been watching him in intense anxiety,and begging him to come back,--

  "Well, Dave, perhaps I'd better wait They ought to be herebefore long."

  So the two prisoners waited.