y.

And the puppet made a gesture with his hands to signify: "I have none."

"Deliver up your money or you are dead," said the tallest of the
brigands.

"Dead!" repeated the other.

"And after we have killed you, we will also kill your father!"

"Also your father!"

"No, no, no, not my poor papa!" cried Pinocchio in a despairing voice,
and as he said it the sovereigns clinked in his mouth.

"Ah! you rascal! Then you have hidden your money under your tongue! Spit
it out at once!"

Pinocchio was obstinate.

"Ah! you pretend to be deaf, do you? Wait a moment, leave it to us to
find a means to make you give it up."

And one of them seized the puppet by the end of his nose, and the other
took him by the chin, and began to pull them brutally, the one up and
the other down, to force him to open his mouth. But it was all to no
purpose. Pinocchio's mouth seemed to be nailed and riveted together.

Then the shorter assassin drew out an ugly knife and tried to put it
between his lips like a lever or chisel. But Pinocchio, as quick as
lightning, caught his hand with his teeth, and with one bite bit it
clear off and spat it out. Imagine his astonishment when instead of a
hand he perceived that a cat's paw lay on the ground.

Encouraged by this first victory he used his nails to such purpose that
he succeeded in liberating himself from his assailants, and, jumping the
hedge by the roadside, he began to fly across the country. The assassins
ran after him like two dogs chasing a hare, and the one who had lost a
paw ran on one leg, and no one ever knew how he managed it.

After a race of some miles Pinocchio could go no more. Giving himself
up for lost, he climbed the trunk of a very high pine tree and seated
himself in the topmost branches. The assassins attempted to climb after
him, but when they had reached half-way up they slid down again and
arrived on the ground with the skin grazed from their hands and knees.

But they were not to be beaten by so little; collecting a quantity of
dry wood, they piled it beneath the pine and set fire to it. In less
time than it takes to tell, the pine began to burn and to flame like a
candle blown by the wind. Pinocchio, seeing that the flames were
mounting higher every instant, and not wishing to end his life like a
roasted pigeon, made a stupendous leap from the top of the tree and
started afresh across the fields and vineyards. The assassins followed
him, and kept behind him with