ould not venture to fly.
All that Bob had ever heard about the manners and customs of Italian
brigands now came to his mind--how they detain their prisoners
subject to a ransom, treating them well enough until the ransom
comes, but if it fails, then inflicting upon them the most horrible
cruelties. To Bob it now seemed certain that they intended to hold
him for ransom, and that they would treat him well till he should
be freed. As he felt certain about obtaining his ransom, he began
to feel less anxious, and his bold and enterprising spirit began
to conceive various ways by which he might baffle the brigands.

At length one of the men went off, and the younger of the women
went into the house. The brigand with the gun remained, and talked
for a little while with the old woman. It was evident to Bob, by
the glances which they threw at him, that he was the subject of
their conversation. To him the old woman was by far the most
obnoxious of the whole crowd. The slatternly woman, the dirty,
impish children, the brigands,--all these were bad enough; but the
old woman was far worse to his imagination. There was in her watery
eyes, in the innumerable wrinkles of her leathery skin, in her
toothless jaws, something so uncanny that he almost shuddered. She
reminded him of some of those witches of whom he had read, who, in
former and more superstitious ages, were supposed to have dealings
with the evil one, and whose looks certainly sustained such a
supposition. To Bob, at that time, it seemed that if ever any one
did in reality have dealings with the evil one, that one was the
old hag behind him. To him she seemed a witch; he thought of her
as a witch; and if she had at that time put on a peaked hat,
straddled a broomstick, and flown off through the air, it would
scarcely have surprised him.

At length the brigand went off, and the old woman came up to Bob.
At her approach Bob involuntarily shrank back a step or two. The
old hag fixed her small, watery eyes on him, mumbled with her
toothless jaws, and after a few efforts croaked out something in
Italian, followed by some gestures with her hands, which Bob
understood to convey a general assurance of safety. For this he
was prepared, since his mind was now fixed upon the idea that he
would be kept for a ransom. Then the old woman came nearer, and
put one of her thin, bony, shrivelled hands on his shoulder. The
touch was like the touch of a skeleton, and suggested horrible
thoug