idea what kind of a walk we were in for when we started,
neither had Brown, for he had never been over exactly this part of the
world either walking or driving, but only in the train. We hadn't been
gone long when we plunged downwards into a deep and winding mountain
gorge, the kind of cut-throat place where you'd expect brigands to grow
on blackberry bushes. Oh, but it was dark, with only now and then a
fitful gleam of moonlight cutting its way through a rent in the inky
clouds! Hardly had the word "brigands" crept into my mind with an
accompaniment of heart-beats something like the plink! plink! plink!
villain entrance-music on the stage, when two indistinct forms loomed
out of the blackness before us. A perpendicular wall of rock shot up
from the road on one side, and on the other, in some unseen depth below,
roared a torrent, which drowned my voice when I whispered to Brown, so I
clutched his coat-sleeve instead of speaking.

The two men were chattering loudly in Italian. "Ah, _Italian_ brigands,
worse and worse!" thought I; but Brown said "Good-evening" to them
boldly, and they answered as mildly as a pair of lambs, falling behind
to let us pass on. I skipped along, expecting at any instant to feel a
knife in my back, but the blade did not penetrate any part more vital
than my imagination, though the pair hung on our footsteps till we
emerged from the mountain defile into the town of Ollioules.

I never knew what an attractive object an electric tram could be, until
I saw one there awaiting our convenience, glittering with hospitable
light. We jumped in, and were flashed into Toulon in no time, stopping
close to the best hotel. We found that they could accommodate our party,
but Brown quite took the upper hand; wouldn't allow me to stop and
talk, had me swept off to a very nice room, and said that not only would
he see about a surgeon for me, but would arrange for a carriage to drive
back for Aunt Mary and Jimmy.

Till we got into the electric car at Ollioules I hadn't noticed in the
dark that Brown was carrying anything. But he put down on the car seat
quite a heavy bag of mine and a sort of big dressing-case of his own,
which is his only baggage on the automobile. "Why _did_ you lug all
that?" I exclaimed. "Oh, I thought you might need something before the
others arrived," said he, "and I didn't like to trouble them to look
after mine." Wasn't he thoughtful? And I was glad to have my
bag--without waiting. But