[The Adventures of Pinocchio by C. Collodi--Pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini]@TWC D-Link book
The Adventures of Pinocchio

CHAPTER 17
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When I awoke they were gone and I started out in the darkness all alone.

On the road I met two Assassins dressed in black coal sacks, who said to me, 'Your money or your life!' and I said, 'I haven't any money'; for, you see, I had put the money under my tongue.

One of them tried to put his hand in my mouth and I bit it off and spat it out; but it wasn't a hand, it was a cat's paw.

And they ran after me and I ran and ran, till at last they caught me and tied my neck with a rope and hanged me to a tree, saying, 'Tomorrow we'll come back for you and you'll be dead and your mouth will be open, and then we'll take the gold pieces that you have hidden under your tongue.'" "Where are the gold pieces now ?" the Fairy asked.
"I lost them," answered Pinocchio, but he told a lie, for he had them in his pocket.
As he spoke, his nose, long though it was, became at least two inches longer.
"And where did you lose them ?" "In the wood near by." At this second lie, his nose grew a few more inches.
"If you lost them in the near-by wood," said the Fairy, "we'll look for them and find them, for everything that is lost there is always found." "Ah, now I remember," replied the Marionette, becoming more and more confused.

"I did not lose the gold pieces, but I swallowed them when I drank the medicine." At this third lie, his nose became longer than ever, so long that he could not even turn around.


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