her sharply. "Do not speak of it! Hiew,
hiew! Go on! go on!" And she urged the oxen faster.

But the great beasts would not hasten their pace for her. The noise
came nearer. They could hear that it was the trotting of hoofs.

"There is only one animal," said Gigi, whose ears were keen. "I can
hear his four feet patter. I think it is the donkey!"

"I can see him now!" cried Paolo. "It is a little man on a donkey. He
is bending forward and beating it hard."

Gigi strained his eyes to see. "It is Tonio!" he whispered fearfully.
"I know it! Oh, the Hunchback will kill me when he finds me! And he
will take your silver, too!"

"Sh! Sh!" commanded the mother. "He shall not find you. Here, take
this bag, Gigi. It will be safer with you. And here, creep under my
skirts and keep close. He will never guess where you are!"

Mother Margherita spread out her generous draperies, which luckily were
both long and wide, and Gigi crept under them, being wholly covered.
The other boys huddled close, shivering with a not wholly unpleasant
excitement. This was an adventure indeed for a holiday!

The rider drew nearer and nearer, lashing the poor donkey unmercifully.
At last they could see his face, red and lowering.

"Halt!" he cried suddenly. "You in the cart there, halt!"

V

THE HUNCHBACK

The oxen stopped. The cart came to
a standstill. The boys huddled closer,
and Gigi's heart beat like a tambourine.
He was sure that Tonio would hear it.

"What do you want?" asked Mother Margherita,
and her usually kind voice was harsh.

"You seem to have a load of young cubs
there," shouted Tonio. "Have you got my
boy, Gigi the Tumbler, among them? Some
one has stolen the little monster."

[Illustration: "Have you got my boy?"]

"What are you talking about!" answered
Mother Margherita sharply. "I am a respectable
countrywoman returning from market-day
with my children. What business have I
with tumblers and vagrants!"

"That I'll see for myself, woman," said
Tonio, jumping unsteadily down from the
donkey and approaching the cart. Tonio had
been drinking, and his little eyes were red and
fierce.

"Keep your hands off my children!" cried
their plucky mother, brandishing her whip.
But Tonio was not to be kept away.

"I will see them!" he snarled. He thrust
his ugly face into those of the three boys, one
after another, eyeing them sharply in the
growing darkness. But there was little about
the