"They have been firing for two hours," they said. "He has killed one carabineer and wounded more than three compagni d'armi. But they sent back such a hailstorm of shots that he must have been hit; there was a pool of blood where he had been."
Then Peppa made the sign of the cross before the old mother's pillow, and made her escape out of the window.
Gramigna was in the prickly pear-trees of Palagonia, and they were not able to find him in that stronghold of rabbits. He was ragged and covered with blood, pale after two days of fasting, burning with fever, and he had his carbine levelled. When he saw her coming, resolute, among the prickly pear bushes, in the dim light of the gloaming, he hesitated a moment whether to shoot or not:—
"What do you want?" he demanded. "What are you coming here for?"
"I am coming to stay with you," said she, looking straight at him. "Are you Gramigna?"
"Yes, I am Gramigna. If you expect to get those twenty oncie[3] of reward, you are mightily mistaken."
"No, I have come to stay with you," she replied.
"Go away!" said he. "You can't stay with me, and I don't want anyone with me. If you are after money, I tell you you have made a mistake. I haven't any, mind you! For two days I haven't had even a morsel of bread."
"I can't go back home now," said she; "the place is all full of soldiers."
"Go away! What is that to me? Each for himself."