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falco falcone 29i
29I
— " Diavolo !’ " He saw you in the brushwood and
he was very near shooting you, but he did not do it,
because he thought that perhaps it was your duty to
pursue him."— " Diavolo, Diavolo !"— " But
if you try’once more after this . . . "— "Diavolo,
Diavolo, Diavolo!"
" Do you suppose that lieutenant ever came back ?
Don’t you suppose that he at once removed to a
neighborhood where he did not need to pursue robbers?"
And the working-men out on Etna ask themselves :
" Who will aid us against Falco ? He is
formidable. Even the soldiers tremble before him."
But Falco Falcone is now an old man. He no longer
plunders the mail-coach, he does not kidnap
estate-owners. He sits for the most part, quietly, in the
quarry in Diamante, and, instead of stealing money
and goods, he receives money and goods into his
charge. All this they muse over. He receives a fee
from the large estate-owners, that he shall protect
their possessions against other robbers, and it has
become quiet and peaceful on Etna, for he allows no
one to harm those who pay him tribute.
But that quiets no one. Now that Falco has become
a friend of the great, he may so much the easier
destroy the railroad.
And they recall the story of Niccola Galli, who is
the overseer on the Marquis di San Stefano’s estate,
on the south side of Etna. One time his laborers
" struck " in the midst of the harvest-time. Niccola
Galli was in despair. The wheat stood ripe, and he
could not get it harvested. His laborers would not.
His laborers laid themselves down to sleep on the
edge of the ditch.
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