in
blue, still on its knees. "Are you hurt?" I asked in real anxiety,
such as I had not thought it possible to feel for the Brat.

"No--only my arm. He wrung it so. And perhaps I have twisted my knee.
I don't know yet. He pushed me back, and I fell down."

I lifted him up and supported him for a moment, he leaning against me,
the colour drained from cheeks and lips. But suddenly it streamed
back, even to his forehead; and raising his head from my shoulder
where it had lain for a few seconds, he unwound himself gently from my
arm. "I'm all right now, thank you awfully," he said. "I believe you
have saved my life and Innocentina's. You see, we fought with the man
for our things; and when he saw that he couldn't steal them without a
struggle, he whipped out a knife and--and then you came. Oh, he was a
coward to attack two--two people so much weaker than himself, and then
to run away when a stronger one came!"

I kept Joseph's story to myself, and hoped that the boy had not heard
it. Perhaps, after all, this lurking beast of prey had not been the
murderer in hiding. The place was desolate, and evening was falling.
Some tramp, or thievish peasant, taking advantage of the murder-scare,
might easily have dared this attack; and when I glanced at the picnic
array under a tree near by, I was even less surprised than before at
the thing which had happened.

The mouse-coloured pack-donkey had been denuded of his load, and the
most elaborate tea basket I had ever seen (finer even than Molly's)
was open on the ground. If the cups, plates and saucers, the knives,
spoons and forks, were not silver, they were masquerading hypocrites;
and I now discovered that the large, dark object which I had seen
Innocentina putting into the _ruecksack_ (at this moment half on, half
off) was a very handsome travelling bag. It was gaping wide, the mouth
fixed in position with patent catches, and it lay where the
disappointed thief had flung it, tumbled on its side, with a quantity
of gold and crystal fittings scattered round about. On the gold backs
of the brushes, and the tops of the bottles, was an intricate
monogram, traced in small turquoises.

"By Jove!" I exclaimed. "Do you travel with these things? What
madness to spread them out in the woods by an unfrequented mountain
road! That is to offer too much temptation even to the honest poor."

"I know," said the boy meekly. "It was stupid to picnic in such a
place, but we had come fast" (with