The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-06-20
ANDREANO.
"Halt! Close up, there!"

ualC SIOSe up, tLcI0!
The order rang out sharply, echoing
from rock to rock, and seeming to die
away in hollow murmurs up the pre-
cipitous and, bleak sides Of the hills.
The little band of Italian soldiery closed
up rapidly as their grizzled old captain
spoke and faced him silently with their
carbines grounded and the look Of dull
and apathetic discipline on their faces
that is characteristic of their class.
"My men," said the weather beaten
and gray headed leader, regarding them
sharply from under his shaggy eyebrows,
"the wolf is driven to his last lair. ALI,
or nearly all, of his people have been
killed off during the weeks that we
have been following them over these
dreary hills. He-the bandit, the rob-
ber, the Andreano of the hills-cannot
last out longer now. His hour is come,
if we are but watchfuL Up and up he
has been driven, often nearly falling
into our hands, yet as often escaping.
Now, behind him rises the sheer straight
line of the hills, on either side are two
good companies Of our men; we stand
in the front. The great Andreano, terror
of our hills'-the captain laughed soft
ly in his throat-''is already as one
dead. You know your orders; he is to
be shot down like dog by the first man
who sights him. You understand"
A low, deep murmur went up from
the men, and then single voice spoke !;
the speaker, who stood in the front
rank, giving the salute rapidly.
"But, my captain, what Of the child?"
The old man turned on him fiercely.
"The child! What child?"
The soldier--a little, 1.-THE, swarthy
man, with cleaning white teeth shin
ing under his brown mustache-saluted
again.
"The child, my captain, he brought
from Massafno, below there in the val
ley. The child of the woman who had
loved him.
The captain, interested in spite of
himself, knitted his brows and bade the
soldier proceed.
"What of this child? You may
speak. :"
Thus encouraged, the little man with
the cleaning teeth saluted once mort,
and with many gesture of fingers,
shoulders and eyebrows rapidly told his
story.
Twas but year ago, my captain.
The woman-I know not her name
had loved him in the days when he was
lad tilling the fields down there. She
was alone. Her friends were dead or
had left her. There was no one but the
priest who could help her, and the priest
was too poor. What would you?" with
an appealing glance at his fellows and
rapid shrug Of his shoulders. "She
had been married-this woman who had
loved the Andreano-and had child, a
girl child, but her man lay in the sandy
graveyard over against the village church
yonder, dead, year before, of the fever.
So she sent to Andreano.
He paused for moment, spat quick
ly upon the ground and went on again.
"She sent message to him up here
in the hills, my captain, and he came to
her. He came down in the night and
saw her; came, armed to the teeth, and
daring all or any to touch him. And in
the morning, when the sun was coming
up over the hills, he had gone, and the
child with him, and the woman who
had loved him lay dead, with smile on
her face. That is all, my captain"
The man saluted again and drew back.
"And the child-where is it now?"
asked the captain slowly.
"The child is with him, my captain. I"
"What matters it," muttered the cap
tain. "Kill the child too. Kill off the
whole brood. Come, we waste time.
Forward!'
Yet for all that, as the captain march
ed at the head of his men with knitted
brows, he was very silent and very
thoughtful and might almost have been
thought to have been in doubt. Once or
twice he shook his head slowly and NUT
tered sonnet. .ng beneath his breath. He,
too, had heard the strange story at an
earlier time-had heard how this terri
BILE and sin stained man, with price
upon his head, had gone down into the
valley-into the midst of men ready and
willing to sell lhim-carrying his life in
his hand, to see peasant woman who
had sent for him; he had heard, too,
how the robber had carried the child
into the hills and had carefully tended
it there ever since.
1t was late in the afternoon when the
little con3pa drew near the end Of its
quest, and, with leveled carbines, crept
silently ON amid the rocks that lay
strewn about the place. Suddenly one
man-the little soldier with the gleam-
ing teeth, who had spoken before-cried
out sharply:
"See, my captain, he comes-with
the chi1dp'
1t was true; even as they looked they
saw an active, picturesque figure spring
ing from rock to rock toward them,
bearing on its shoulders a laughing,
growing, dark haired child One hand
Of the man held the baby, the other
grasped carbine, and the late afternoon
sun CLEANED on the weapons in his belt
They saw, too, that the baby had. fas-
tened lightly to one chubby ast, Hut-