im. Tomorrow we will come and see him."

They then turned to Pinocchio and, having placed him between them, they
said to him in a commanding voice:

"Forward! and walk quickly, or it will be the worse for you."

Without requiring it to be repeated, the puppet set out along the road
leading to the village. But the poor little devil hardly knew where he
was. He thought he must be dreaming, and what a dreadful dream! He was
beside himself. He saw double; his legs shook; his tongue clung to the
roof of his mouth, and he could not utter a word. And yet, in the midst
of his stupefaction and apathy, his heart was pierced by a cruel
thorn--the thought that he would pass under the windows of the good
Fairy's house between the soldiers. He would rather have died.

They had already reached the village when a gust of wind blew
Pinocchio's cap off his head and carried it ten yards off.

"Will you permit me," said the puppet to the soldiers, "to go and get
my cap?"

"Go, then; but be quick about it."

The puppet went and picked up his cap, but instead of putting it on his
head he took it between his teeth and began to run as hard as he could
towards the seashore.

The soldiers, thinking it would be difficult to overtake him, sent after
him a large mastiff who had won the first prizes at all the dog races.
Pinocchio ran, but the dog ran faster. The people came to their windows
and crowded into the street in their anxiety to see the end of the
desperate race.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXVIII

PINOCCHIO ESCAPES BEING FRIED LIKE A FISH

There came a moment in this desperate race--a terrible moment--when
Pinocchio thought himself lost: for Alidoro, the mastiff, had run so
swiftly that he had nearly come up with him.

The puppet could hear the panting of the dreadful beast close behind
him; there was not a hand's breadth between them, he could even feel the
dog's hot breath.

Fortunately the shore was close and the sea but a few steps off.

As soon as he reached the sands the puppet made a wonderful leap--a frog
could have done no better--and plunged into the water.

Alidoro, on the contrary, wished to stop himself, but, carried away by
the impetus of the race, he also went into the sea. The unfortunate dog
could not swim, but he made great efforts to keep himself afloat with
his paws; but the more he struggled the farther he sank head downwards
under the water.

When he rose to the surface again his eyes were