Litchfield enquirer., 1880-11-11

inner chamber, and emerge more charming
contadina than the old house had ever seen
before tf9T W A9o2ahil TOT y e'A
Aftersupper / thought, Iwould drop into
| the kitchen, in case should be de tgop where
i was; and my dress by this time was sufi.
! GENTLY nondescript to suit any character like
| ly to be known in those parts sI am not
easily surprised, but what beheld On entering
| did astonish me for once. 1t was not a very
| frightful sight; the landlord was not being
held seated on the fire, and the face Of Rich
eta was smiling enough; but there, visiblY
before me, raised on end, with q, great stout
muleteer sitting upon it, was a solid leather
portmanteau, with r'Gideon Deilmaeare,
ESQ.," printed nit in black letters. There
could be no mistake. The other portman-
teaus German leather) were mere dust and
ashes. This was the one that contained my
manuscripts and other valuabies.. 54a s.o1
/ The first impulse / felt was to knock The
ruff1an of, into the fire, and there and then lay
peremptory claim; but secopd glance at
him induced me to ad6pta policy of reserve.
Apparently Roman by his speech; and, two
| thirds drunk, he was,one of those Italians who
Eare the most difficult of all 70 deal with Large,
rudy, jocular, coarse, he was olikely to com.
bine something of the unscrupulousness of q
Neapolitan with the cunning of Bolognese:
and it was evident that he had some special
interest in that portmanteau. He sat upon it
as child would upon a dog, patted it. spoke
to it, and, altogether seemed to- have sense
OF property in it, heightened by conviction
that his possession was not altogether of le-
Ultimate kind. t4o-3}fs'-S: tV*3a la* Z. .ts u
"Excellenzal" he would say, clapping it af-
fectionately, after being softened by another
gulp of wine, sit is to Livorno you want to
60! Yes to Livorno, Liv-iv-vorno. And
as the word showed an inclination to dwell in
definitely in his throat he recovered his dig
nifty by giving the portmanteau sudden kick
and growing, ''Brigand who saved thy life
among the snow ?"s7iea @s,t$ua ,1e
Clearly that case, of solid leather was not to
be rashly meddled with, 80 l., dropped down
who was sitting little apart, and proceeded
to smoke. Noticing my pipe, this man sud
denly said, in strong local accent. 80.
"Sin sic Ell Deutsche mein Herr ?"
"Ein student,"I replied, ambiguously re-
cogniZing the patois of the Canton GTanbun.
den, where bad German and worse Italian are
both spoken. This was great recommends
ton to the honest Swiss, who did not seem
much at home with his companions, and had
a vague reverence for students in general He
drank wine with me- told me much of his his
tory, which is not worth repeating here, aud
finally, as he warmed, informed me that his
friends were ostensibly muleteers, principally
smugglers and not much better than robbers.
Seeing us drinking together, the scoundrel on
the portmanteau insisted that ! should treat
the whole party with wine; but the Swiss
said to me in German, which none of the
others seemed to understand ''Say that you
have no mnney--no more than will pay for
your bed and what you have got-or these
fellows will be at you in the night, and they
are not afraid of the Polizei. :"
Of course took his hint, and the Roman,
aggravated by such unprincipled impecuniosi-
ty, began to talk loudly and loosely of the
party which had come to the inn that night.
Unfortunately 'Richetta, in her anxiety to
turn his inquiries. involved herself in so many
contradictions that more stolid ruffian than
this would easily have detected them, and
seen there was some cause for concealmenL
After rejecting moment, bright idea SEEM
ed to strike him. Slapping his thick leg, and
eXclaiming II Cavalli" he rose and moved
with unsteady step toward the door, evidently
with the intention Of gaining some Information
as to the strangers from their horses and sad.
dies. This was what | wanted to prevent in
his then drunken mood; so before he left the
room / tried the experiment of seating myself
upon the portmanteau which be had left and
of curiously examining the lock, which seem
ed uninjured. On seeing this he turned back
more politely asked me to rise, and so to
speak, collarng the portmanteau as If it had
been an offending child, bore it away toward
the, shed where the rest of the luggage was
piled up. 7'
THAT seems a valuable article" / said
Isl, 81, sigporl" was the reply, with dunk
en- cunning twinklipg in his eyes ''We mule
teers have many valuable articles committed
to our charge. We take care of them, never
fear. But" getting more communicative, ''ths
is my trunk, my property, and honestly came
by too, for did not pick it up in some melt
ing snow at Brixen, near the Lago di Garda
1t must have belonged to some Milford Inglese
Who knows but it may be half full of scudi9
Yes, of scudi,''' he said angrily, as if driving
away some unpleasant doubt ''for the wise
mother said that my good fortune would hegiu
at Brixen and be completed at Livorno, 80
have not opened it yet" ~
'"But the oWneri you might have found him,
and he would have rewarded you handsomely
that Is to say, given you something" hast.
lily added, as the possibility of having to make
good the words occurred to my mind.
1.-THE owneri" he exclaimed with great
wrath, "Listen, signor There is no owner,
but myself. Do the owners of portmanteaus
leave them down in shew-heaps at the bottom
of ravines? Am l to risk my neck and nearly
then to be talked to about the owner7 tell
you this Is mine Il this is the grand fortune
which the wise mother told me was to COM
mence at Brixen and end at Livorno; and If it
contains nothing of value when 1t is opened,
shall burn everything it contains and never
give the old she-devil baiocco more"
As the muleteer was in the habit of always
travelling between the two places he had
mentioned the wise mother had wisely ar
ranged 30 that her reputation would be in
creased by any luck which might befall him;
but knowing as did the contents Of the port
nanteau neither the melting snow nor the
threatened incrematiOn was pleasant news
However, this interlude diverted the attention
of the Roman from our party and, throwing
himself beside his piece of good fortune he
gave symptoms of going to sleep. AN at
tempts to interchange signs with the acting
host, the uncle of 'Richetta, had proved I'M
avaiing, and so my best hope of putting our
selves on safe footing depended on the re-
turn of the landlord himself, who would be
likely to extend tolus protection. Situated as
we were, it was difficult to say what the null
eteers might or might not do. Perhaps they
would leave us nndisturbed, perhaps be only
rude but there was also the danger that we
not having the means aboutu of buying them
off or of frightening them of, might be way
laid by them On the Journey back, Or even In
Miiag.io be exposed to an amount of rudeness
intolerable and consequently dangerous
On returning to Benton and his fair cousin
| gave a favorable report Of the aspect Of. af-
fairs; but when arrangements were being
made for the night, f'Richetta signalled that
she wished to speak with ME In the garden
The Roman, it seemed, had risen from his
drunken sleep in an irritable frame Of mind,
and she had overheard him and some of his
companions planning an Inroad on the strange
visitors after the people of the inn had gone to
sleep. You are English. and you are hon.
drable," she continued, land will keep it a
secret if Ishow you where you may rest for
the night ,updisturbed. ,.., ~, tt.,-.-
"Would that my father were come fol, l do
not know that I am doing right. Butiehe
fare p something must be done ! for I would
NOT have the beautiful signorina even fright
,ened. . There are some other rooms where you
will be safe, for no ole knows of them except