Looking
up, he dropped the file, snatched up the lantern and hurled it against
the wall, shivering it into pieces. Just as the light went out the men
seized him. Pomponio fought like a demon, and was fast getting loose
from their clutches, when Juan shouted to the men outside to come to
their aid; but too late. As they clambered through the window, and
sought to lay hold of him, which was not the work of a moment in the
darkness, the neophyte broke from his antagonists and sprang to one
side, avoiding the oncoming couple from the window. While the men were
shouting and swearing, groping this way and that to find their prey,
Pomponio slid softly to the window, jumped through it, and set off, at
his utmost speed, for the open plain and not far distant forest. During
the fray Father Altimira had remained somewhat apart, outside the room.
As Pomponio rushed by him, the Father, calling him by name, commanded
him to stop. He paid no attention, but kept on his way, and was
immediately lost in the darkness.
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