10 SHORT STALKS 



tained an English shilling, with which booty they retired, 

 apparently well pleased with the result of their little game 

 of brag. When he wanted to examine their guns, they 

 sprang back, spurred by guilty conscience. This very 

 mild case of highway robbery came round to the ears of 

 the carabinieri, though we had carefully concealed the 

 incident from them. They professed great indignation 

 that we had not reported it, and the row w^axed so hot 

 that at one time we thought we were to be locked up for 

 having been robbed. Ultimately they offered to intern 

 the whole countryside in their villages as long as we 

 remained I The only recent crime of which we heard in 

 the neighbourhood was recorded by a little cross on the 

 road, a mile from the cantoniera where we stayed. Here, 

 a merchant, returning with the proceeds of a sale of wine, 

 had been murdered for his money the previous summer. 

 There was a hue and cry, and a demand for justice, and 

 somebody was shot "at sight" by one of the carabinieri a 

 month afterwards. As far as I could learn, there was only 

 the barest suspicion against this man, but if he hadn't 

 murdered the merchant, perhaps he had "booed the 

 police." The carabiniero was decorated! The custom 

 of the vendetta has been almost stamped out, and what 

 remains is merely a residue of commonplace sordid crime, 

 and very little of that. As impulsive as children, the 

 Sards are also as susceptible to praise or blame. If the 

 least thino; went wrono- I have seen them blubber like 

 overgrown babies, with heaving shoulders and streaming 

 eyes. Our coachman, on one occasion having to get an 

 extra load up a rather steep hill, was so overcome by such 

 a paroxysm that he actually rolled off the box from sheer 



