CHAPTER XXVIII.
_The Salamander inaccessible to Fire.--The last Appeal.--Franktakes Action.--He fires.--Casualty to Frank and Bob.--Onset of theMonster.--Flight.--Tremendous Sensation.--The Guide's Story.--AnotherLegend of Albano.--On to Rome._
For some time Frank had felt an intolerable impatience, and hadbeen deliberating in his own mind about the best way of ending ascene which was not only painful to the poor prisoners, buthumiliating to himself. In spite, however, of the immense odds infavor of the attacking party, Frank could not think of any way ofmaking those odds available under present circumstances, when thelast plaintive appeal and the desperate proposal of Clive and Davidcame to his ears. He saw that they were suffering tortures fromthe smoke, that they could not endure it much longer, and that theywould have to make a descent from the window. To prevent this, andthe danger that might result from it, Frank resolved upon immediateaction.
So he grasped his rusty fowling-piece with a deadly purpose, andrushed to the narrow doorway of the old house. Bob followed at oncewith his pitchfork, resolved to go wherever Frank led the way, andto stand by him at all hazards. The guide stood looking on. UncleMoses also stood still, and made a feeble attempt to order the twoboys back; but his words were neither heard nor heeded. At thisDavid and Clive stopped in their desperate design, and looked downat Frank and Bob.
Frank stood by the doorway.
He put his head inside, and looked all around, cautiously, yetresolutely. The interior, however, was always a dark place; andnow the fumes of blue smoke made it yet darker. But though his eyessaw nothing of the fierce beast, his ears could detect the rustleand the crackle which were produced by the motion of somethingamong the fagots. This noise showed him plainly where it must be.
Thereupon he hesitated no longer.
He raised his rusty fowling-piece to his shoulder!
He took deadly aim!
He fired!
Bang!!!
The flash illumined the dark interior, and the smoke from thegun united with the smoke that was already there. Bat simultaneouswith the bang and the flash, Frank felt himself hurled back-ward,and to the ground, knocked down by the recoil of the gun, flaton his back.
Up rushed Bob, full of the deepest anxiety.
But just as he reached the prostrate form of Frank, there was ahurried clatter from within, and then--down he also went--headfirst--over and over--struck down by some rushing figure that hademerged from the pile of fagots, burst through the doorway, andwas now careering wildly over the fields.
Uncle Moses saw that figure, and then hurried up to his twoprostrate boys.
David and Clive from their stations at the window saw it, and theninstantly hurried down the ladder, and out of the house, where theystood panting and staring wildly at vacancy.
The guide saw it, and as he saw it there came over his face anexpression of an utterly indescribable kind. He clasped his handstogether, and then uttered a series of exclamations for which theEnglish language, or indeed any other language but the Italian,can afford no equivalent.
While he was thus standing with clasped hands, vociferating andstaring, in company with David and Clive, at the receding figure,Frank had sprung to his feet, and so had Bob; Uncle Moses, too,stood gazing at the object of universal interest; and thus all ofthem stood staring, with feelings that defy description, at thescene before them.
What was this scene that thus held their gaze?
Well, in the first place, there was that valley, already so familiarto David and Clive--a smooth slope on either side, some olive treesnear, but beyond that all bare, and no houses visible in thatdirection. Now, over this open space there was running--so swiftand so straight that it was evidently impelled by pain or panic--what?
_A little black pig!_
A pig, small, as has just been said, an ordinary domestic pig--ofno particular breed--the commonest of animals. Moreover, it wasblack. It was also, undoubtedly, as has just been remarked, eithersuffering from some of the shot of Frank's rusty gun, or from theterror that might have been excited by its report. And now thislittle black pig was running as fast as its absurd little legscould carry it--far away across the fields.
"O, holy saints!" cried the guide; "it's the little black pig, thatwe missed from the convent yesterday morning--the pig--the littleblack pig--the pig--the pig! Is it possible? O, is it possible?"
Every word of this was heard by the boys. They understood it allnow. It seemed also that the little black pig, having accomplishedas much mischief as any single pig can ever hope to bring about,was evidently making the best of its way to its home, and steeringstraight, for the convent. This they saw, and they gazed in silence.Nothing was said, for nothing could be said. They could noteven look at one another. David and Clive were of course themost crestfallen; but the others had equal cause for humiliation.After all their gigantic preparations, their cautions advances,and their final blow,--to find their antagonist reduced tothis was too much. Now, the fact is, that if it had reallybeen a wild boar, Frank's act would have been the same; andas he acted under the belief that it was so, it was undoubtedlydaring, and plucky, and self-sacrificing; but, unfortunately,the conclusion of the affair did not allow him to look uponit in that light.
Now, all this time the crowd behind the house maintained theirshouts and outcries. Under the circumstances, this uproar becameshockingly absurd, and out of place; so the guide hastened to putan end to it. On the whole, he thought it was not worth while totell the truth, for the truth would have so excited the good peopleof Albano, that they would, undoubtedly, have taken vengeance onthe strangers for such a disgrace as this. Therefore the guidedecided to let his fancy play around the actual fact, and thus itwas that the guide's story became an idealized version.
It was something to the following effect:--
The terrible wild boar, he said, had been completely indifferentto their outcry, or had, perhaps, been afraid to come forth andface so many enemies. He (the guide) had therefore determined totry to smoke him out, and had borrowed their handkerchiefs for thatpurpose, as there were no other combustibles to be had. Of thisthey were already aware. He had tied these handkerchiefs togetherin such a way that they would burn, and after setting fire to them,had burled the blazing mass into the house. There it emitted itsstifling fumes till they confused, suffocated, frightened, andconfounded the lurking wild boar. Then, in the midst of this, theheroic youth, armed with his gun, rushed forward and poured thedeadly contents of his piece into the body of the beast. Had itbeen any other annual, it would undoubtedly have perished; but thewild boar has a hide like sheet iron, and this one was merelyirritated by the shot. Still, though not actually wounded, he wasenraged, and at the same time frightened. In his rage and fear hestarted from his lurking-place; he bounded forth, and made a savageattack upon the party in front of the house. They stood their groundfirmly and heroically, and beat him off; whereupon, in despair, heturned and fled, vanquished, to his lair in the Alban tunnel.
In this way the guide's vivid imagination saved the travellers fromthe fury of the Alban people, by preventing that fury, and supplyingin its place self-complacency. The Alban people felt satisfied withthemselves and with this story. They accepted it as undoubted; theytook it to their homes and to their hearts; they enlarged, adorned,improved, and lengthened it out, until, finally, it assumed theamplest proportion, and became one of the most popular legends ofthe place. What is still more wonderful, this very guide, who hadfirst created it, told it so often to parties of tourists, that heat length grew to believe every word of it himself; and the factthat he had been an actor in that scene never failed to make hisstory quite credible to his hearers.
At this time, however, he had not advanced so far, and he was ableto tell the actual facts of the case to the boys and Uncle Moses.
They were these:--
At the convent they kept a number of pigs, and on the previousday, early in the morning, they had missed the very animal whichhad created this extraordinary scene. He
had escaped in some wayfrom his pen, and had fled for parts unknown. They had searchedfor him, but in vain. He must have wandered to this old house atthe first, and taken up his quarters here until he was so rudelydriven out from them. The guide could only hope that the littleblack pig would learn a lesson from this of the evils of runningaway from home.
To all this the boys listened without any interest whatever, anddid not condescend to make any remarks. The guide himself becamesingularly uninteresting in their eyes, and they got rid of him assoon as possible, paying him liberally, however for the additionaltrouble to which they had put him. Uncle Moses also had some wordsof remonstrance, mingled with congratulation, to offer to Davidand Clive; but these also were heard in silence. They might havefound ample excuse for their delay in this ruined house; but theydid not feel inclined to offer any excuses whatever.
The fact is, this reduction of the great wild boar to the veryinsignificant proportions of a little black pig--commonplace,paltry, and altogether contemptible--was too much for theirsensitive natures. It had placed them all in a false position.They were not cowards, but they had all been alarmed by the mostdespicable of animals. Frank felt profoundly humiliated, andreflected, with a blush, upon the absurd figure that he had madeof himself in hesitating so long before such an enemy, and thenadvancing upon it in such a way. Bob's feelings were very similar.But it was for David and Clive that the deepest mortificationwas reserved. They had been the cause of it all. It was theirvivid imaginations which had conjured up out of nothing a terriblewild beast, which had kept them prisoners there for hours inloneliness and hunger, and which had thrown ridicule upon thepopulation of Albano, by drawing them forth to do battle withone poor little harmless runaway pig.
As they walked back to the hotel, they kept far in the rear of thecitizens of Albano; and Uncle Moses began to "improve" the occasion,and moralized in a solemn strain.
"Wal," said he, "my dear boys, I must say that you hev one and allthe greatest talent for gittin' yourselves into trouble that I eversee. Ever sence we landed on these ill-fated shores you've bena-goin' it, and a drivin' of me wild with anxiety; and the onlything I can say is, that thus far your misadventoors hain't turnedout so bad as I have feared in each individdool case. In fact thar'sallus ben what they call a anticlimax; that is, jest at the momentwhen thar'd ought to be a te-rific di-saster, thar's ben nothin'but some trivial or laugherble tummination. Now, I'm free to confess,boys, that thus far my fears hev ben gerroundless. I'm free tosay that thus far thar hain't ben what we can conscuentionsly calla accident. But what of that? The incidents hev all ben thar. Everyindividdool thing that can make a accident has ben thar--it's onythe conclusion that has somehow broke down. And now I ask you,boys, what air we goin' to do about it? Is this to go on forever?Is it perrobable that advuss circumstances air goin' to alluseventooate thus? I don't believe it. The pitcher that goes oftento the fountain is broke at last, and depend upon it, if you gofor to carry on this way, and thrust yourselves in every dangerthat comes in your way--somethin'll happen--mind I tell you."
This, and much more of the same sort, did Uncle Moses say; but toall of it the boys paid very little attention. In fact, the subjectwas to all of them so painful a one, that they could not bear tohave it brought forward even as the text of a sermon. They onlywanted to forget all about it as soon as possible, and let it sinkinto complete oblivion.
On reaching the hotel they found that it was quite late; but theywere eager to go on. Albano, the historic, had lost all its charmsfor them. They did not wish to remain, a moment longer. They couldnot hope now to see Rome to advantage, for the daylight would beover long before they could enter the city; still they were determinedto go on to Rome, even if they had to enter it after dark.Accordingly, the carriage was made ready as soon as possible; Cliveand David procured some fragments of food, which they took intothe carriage with them, to devour on their way; and thus they leftAlbano, and drove on to Rome.
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