Part 9 (1/2)

At length they reached that long, straight piece of road already round; as they ascended this and reached its summit, they looked ahead, and there, far away before thenized Bob at once He was ht of him filled thereater exertions In spite of the distance that intervened, they all shouted as loud as they could; but of course the distance was too great, and their cries were lost before they reached nearly as far away as Bob In a short tiht

They now rode on for a long tith caone This road was not even noticed by them They had passed other roads of the same kind, which, like this one, led to the mountains, and attached no more importance to this than to those In the ested a fear, that Bob's ass ht have turned off into some one of them; but of course, as they were all alike, they could not conjecture which one would have been taken by the runaway As they rode on, they still looked ahead At every turn in the road they still expected to see the fugitive; and it was not until the donkeys the to slacken their pace But the nature of these donkeys was, after all, but s, they were subject to weakness and fatigue; and as they were now exhausted, their riders were co space, and so they slackened their pace to a walk

And now they all began to consider the probabilities of Bob's fortunes

”I''s happened,” said Clive ”Perhaps he's been thrown”

”Thrown?” cried Frank, cheerily ”Why, if so, ould have found hi thrown from any animal that ever lived is si as the donkey runs”

”It seehtful and observant boy,--”it seems to o off to the mountains”

”Pooh!” said Frank ”Why should the donkey take the trouble to do anything of that sort? A runaway anienerally goes it blind, and runs straight ahead along the road that happens to be before hi the mountains,” said David, ”and, in that case, he wouldhome”

”I don't believe that,” said Frank ”I hold that it requires soh road, and take one of those by-roads”

”Not if a by-road leads to his home”

”But how could his home be there,” objected Frank, ”e found hih,” said David ”I dare say they were going home at the very time we came up with them”

”I e could ask the boy about it,” said Clive ”He could tell as just ant to know”

”Yes,” said Frank; ”but, unfortunately, we couldn't understand all of it”

David heaved a sigh

”Hoish,” he exclaimed, ”that I had studied Italian before I came! But from this time forth, I'e”

Uncle Moses was deeply distressed at Bob's disappearance He had only one idea in his mind He told the other boys what it was It was the idea of brigands They had met poor Bob; they had seized hi-places in the mountains

Even noas in captivity And the heart of Uncle Moses yearned over the poor prisoner He expressed these fears in a feords, for he was too agitated to say much

Clive and David both shook their heads over this, and thought there was soht have been carried by his donkey to the ands would be almost certain To them, these mountains seemed to be full of them; the whole population, in their opinion, was a coands

Clive had also another idea It was this The driver had deserted theone to the ands to capture all of them They had met Bob, seized hihed

”Pooh!” said he ”I don't see why you should go out of your way to torh totill he drops There's a long, straight, smooth road before hi his head about by-roads or h, I don't see why he shouldn't keep on running till he gets to Salerno And it's my opinion, if we don't pick hiet there”

”O, that's all very well,” said Clive, ”but think how certain you were about the driver--”

He was interrupted by the sound of galloping horses and rolling wheels The sound ca fro at full speed, and drawing a carriage The driver hipping the horses furiously, and calling and shouting The carriage was enized the truth It was their carriage and their driver

They all stood still, and looked in surprise, and the carriage rolled swiftly up The driver at once stopped the horses, and ju to the boys, he burst forth into a strain of the ive hian to explain the cause of his absence from the place where they had left him