The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-27

Some one had scraped out three words
| in the bark right beneath his name,
and the words were: Il LOVE YOU"
Who was it had done this thing?
Nicolo, without daring to whisper it to
! himself, believed in his heart of hearts,
with that belief which is the offspring
| Of ones wishes, that it was Simonetta.
/ And perhaps he was right, too.
/ After finding the footprints in the
snow, he continued his way listlessly
| down the mountain. He was no longer
in doubt as to who had stolen Fran
cesco's notes.-the only question was,
schere acre tAey nOw' The world is full
of hiding places, and Pippo. he knew,
was considerably more cunning than
the devil. He sat on ledge of rock
from which the sea was visible, letting
his eve rest on q tiny speck far out in
the water.
It was already dark. but he had the
vision of a sparrow-hawk, and pres
emily this speclk began to interest him.
When it came nearer he could see thai
it was a small boat, and that 1t only
contained one occupant; and that one,
he soon decided, was no fisherman.
He ran quickly down the path and
concealed himself behind clump Of
bushes that grew near the shore. He
could have laughed aloud for joy when
he recognized the huge, doubled-up
form Of the hunchback as he jumped
from the boat and applied his great
strength to draw it up. Surely Nicolo
was in luck's wayne had discovered
the great secret, and without an ef-
fort on his part The notes were at
the Eagles rock!
This rock stands some eight miles
from the mainland. The old fishermen
of Liguria and Etruria in the palny
days of the Roman republic called it
Rupees Aquilina, because of the curious
oonhguration of the summit, which re-
sembles an eagles beak. And the old
name still clings to it.
It rises in awful solitude sheer out of
the sea to height of near two thou
sand feet. It is in the exact shape of
one-half of a cone which has been slit
down the middle-quite fat on one
side, the other forming a convex sur
face. On the convex side, the south,
not only is life possible, but few poor
men and women actually exist there.
This south side has regular steep in
cline upward to the very summit, and a
bold and skillful climber could even
reach the top; but once there, his brain
would grow dizzy to look down, on the
north side, on smooth wall of nearly
perpendicular rock, falling from his
feet plump into the sea beneath. Those
who have so climbed will tell you that
1t is sight full of terror, making the
heart sick. In all this wall of rock
there is one break, and only one-a
horizontal ledge, three feet broad,
which runs right across it at height
of rather more than three-quarters of
the rocks height from the bottom.
Quite near the top on that side a few
shrubs grow.
Before the sun rose on the morning
following his lucky discovery, Nicolo
was far out to sea. He had labored all
night furnishing his boat with a sup
ply Of "tasso" dried strips Of deer
meat, with water, fruit, a great hunk
of goat's-milk cheese, fishing tackle,
and q pot bellied bottle of gentian
brandy. He had an idea that Pippo
was too cunning to hide his treasure on
the rock itself. What was simpler than
to cram the notes in, say, ball of lead,
and sink them away out in the deep?
The sea Is an excellent confidant, but
it has this advantage, that you must
mark the spot where your hidden OBJ
ject lies by some visible floating sub
stance. II was for this substance that
Nicolo went in search. In doing so, all
his movements were regulated by the
inost scrupulous method He never