Part 4 (2/2)
”How could they do such a thing? Being people of great refinement, they did not want to offend you so deeply as not to allow you the honor of paying the bill”
”Too bad! That offense would have beenhis head
”Where did ood friends say they would wait for me?” he added
”At the Field of Wonders, at sunrise toold piece for the three suppers and started on his way toward the field that was towhere he was going, for it was dark, so dark that not a thing was visible Round about hiain and scared hioes there?” and the far-away hills echoed back to hioes ?”
As he walked, Pinocchio noticed a tiny insect gliloith a pale, soft light
”Who are you?” he asked
”I a in a faint voice that sounded as if it came from a far-aorld
”What do you want?” asked the Marionette
”I want to give you a feords of good advice Return hoold pieces you have left to your poor old father who is weeping because he has not seen you for many a day”
”Toold pieces will become two thousand”
”Don't listen to those who proht, my boy As a rule they are either fools or swindlers! Listen to o on!”
”The hour is late!”
”I want to go on”
”The night is very dark”
”I want to go on”
”The road is dangerous”
”I want to go on”
”Re their oay, sooner or later corief”
”The saht, Pinocchio, and may Heaven preserve you from the assassins”
There was silence for aCricket disappeared suddenly, just as if soed in darkness
CHAPTER 14
Pinocchio, not having listened to the good advice of the Talking Cricket, falls into the hands of the assassins
”Dear, oh, dear! When I come to think of it,” said the Marionette to himself, as he once more set out on his journey, ”we boys are really very unlucky Everybody scolds us, everybody gives us advice, everybody warns us If ere to allow it, everyone would try to be father andCricket Take me, for example Just because I would not listen to that botherso me! assassins indeed! At least I have never believed in them, nor ever will To speak sensibly, I think assassins have been invented by fathers and ht And then, even if I were to meet them on the road, what nori, what do you want? Re and mind your business' At such a speech, I can al like the wind But in case they don't run away, I can always run ue any longer, for he thought he heard a slight rustle a the leaves behind him
He turned to look and behold, there in the darkness stood two big black shadorapped froures leaped toward hihosts
”Here they co where to hide the gold pieces, he stuck all four of theue
He tried to run away, but hardly had he taken a step, when he felt his arrasped and heard two horrible, deep voices say to hiold pieces in his mouth, Pinocchio could not say a word, so he tried with head and hands and body to show, as best he could, that he was only a poor Marionette without a penny in his pocket
”Come, come, less nonsense, and out with yourvoices
Once more, Pinocchio's head and hands said, ”I haven't a penny”
”Out with that money or you're a dead man,” said the taller of the two assassins
”Deadkilled you, ill kill your father also”
”Your father also!”
”No, no, no, not my Father!” cried Pinocchio, ith terror; but as he screaether in his aue Out with it!”
But Pinocchio was as stubborn as ever
”Are you deaf? Wait, young !”
One of therabbed the Marionette by the nose and the other by the chin, and they pulled him unmercifully from side to side in order to make him open his ht have been nailed together They would not open
In desperation the s knife from his pocket, and tried to pry Pinocchio's mouth open with it
Quick as a flash, the Marionette sank his teeth deep into the assassin's hand, bit it off and spat it out Fancy his surprise when he saw that it was not a hand, but a cat's paw
Encouraged by this first victory, he freed hi over the bushes along the road, ran swiftly across the fields His pursuers were after hi sevenhiiant pine tree and sat there to see what he could see The assassins tried to cli up the chase, this only spurred theathered a bundle of wood, piled it up at the foot of the pine, and set fire to it In a twinkling the tree began to sputter and burn like a candle blown by the wind Pinocchio saw the fla to end his days as a roasted Marionette, he juround and off he went, the assassins close to him, as before