tro. The carriage stopped.

The inside passengers could see the horses rearing and plunging,
and Dick, snatching whip and reins from Pietro, lashing them with
all his might. In a moment all inside was in an uproar.

"We are attacked!" cried Buttons.

"The devil!" cried the Senator, who, in his sudden excitement, used
the first and only profane expression which his friends ever heard him
utter.

Out came the Doctor's revolver.

Bang! bang! wept two rifles outside, and a loud voice called on them
to surrender.

"_Andate al Diavolo_!" pealed out Dick's voice as loud as a trumpet.
His blows fell fast and furiously on the horses. Maddened by pain,
the animals bounded forward for a few rods, and then swerving from
the road-side, dashed against the precipitous hill, where the coach
stuck, the horses rearing.

Through the doors which they had flung open in order to jump out
the occupants of the carriage saw the reeling figures of armed men
overthrown and cursing. In a moment they all were out.

Bang! and then--

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bang! went half a dozen rifles.

Thank Heaven! not one of the Club, was struck. There were twenty
scoundrels armed to the teeth.

The Doctor was as stiff as a rock. He aimed six times as calmly as
though he were in a pistol-gallery. Nerve told. Six explosions
roared. Six yells followed. Six men reeled.

"I'd give ten years of my life for such a pistol!" cried Buttons.

The Italians were staggered. Dick had a bowie-knife. The Senator
grasped a ponderous beam that he had placed on the coach in case
of another break-down. Mr. Figgs had a razor which he had grabbed
from the storehouse in the Doctor's pocket. Buttons had nothing. But
on the road lay three Italians writhing.

"Hurrah!" cried Buttons. "Load again, Doctor. Come; let's make a
rush and get these devils on the road."

He rushed forward. The others all at his side. The Italians stood
paralyzed at the effect of the revolver. As Buttons led the charge
they fell back a few paces.

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" burst Buttons, the Senator, and Dick, as
each snatched a rifle from the prostrate bandits, and hastily tore
the cartridge-boxes from them.

"Load up! load up! Doctor!" cried Buttons.

"All right,"' said the Doctor, who never changed in his cool
self-possession.

But now the Italians with curses and screams came back to the
attack. It is absolutely stupefying to think how few shots hit the
mark in the excitement of a fight. H