PINOCCHIO MEETS ROBBERS

Pinocchio walked and walked along the dark
road. Then he saw two black figures. They had
black masks on the faces. Pinocchio put his gold
pieces in his mouth and tried to run away. But
suddenly he heard:

“Your money or your life!”

Pinocchio could not answer, because he had the
gold pieces in his mouth.

“Give us your money!” cried the two figures.

Pinocchio showed with his hands: “I have no
money!”

“Give us your money or we’ll kill you!” said
one of them:

“Kill you!” said the other.

“And then we’ll kill your father.”

“Your father, too.”

“No, no, no, not my poor Papa!” cried Pinocchio, and one of the gold pieces fell out of his
mouth.

The robbers saw it and cried:

“Oh! Your money is in your mouth! Wait a
minute and you’ll see how we’ll get it.”

One of them took Pinocchio by the end of his
nose. He began to pull the nose up and down.
But Pinocchio didn’t open his mouth.

The other robber took out a big knife. Suddenly
Pinocchio caught the robber’s hand with his teeth
and bit it off It fell on the ground.

And what did he see on the ground? He saw a
cat’s paw.

The robber cried out. Pinocchio ran away and
the robbers ran after him.