Stranica 82 [82]
70 PINOCCHIÓ
poor assassins—I think I see them—would run
away like the wind. If, however, they were so
badly educated as not to run away, why, then,
I w ould run away myself, and there would be
ani CUO OT at sze
But Pinocchio had not time to finish his
reasoning, for at that moment he thought that
he heard a slight rustle of leaves behind him.
He turned to look, and saw in the gloom
two evil-looking black figures completely en¬
veloped in charcoal sacks. ‘They were running
after him on tiptoe, and making great leaps
like two phantoms.
Here they are in reality!” he said to him¬
self, and not knowing where te hide his gold
pieces he put them in his mouth precisely under
his tongue.
Then he tried to escape. But he had not
gone a step when he felt himself seized by the
arm, and heard two horrid sepulchral voices
saying to him:
“Your money or your life!”
Pinocchio, not being able to answer in
words, owing to the money that was in his
mouth, made a thousand low bows and a thou¬
sand pantomimes. He tried thus to make the
two muffled figures, whose eyes were only visible
through the holes in their sacks, understand