Curious to see whether or not he could lift one, Pinocchio approached the nest.  Just then he heard a frightful noise behind him.

Turning quickly, the marionette saw a huge bird running toward him.  The next moment a powerful push sent him head over heels upon one of the eggs!  As he fell he heard a loud crash, and at almost the same instant found himself carried through the air.  What had befallen him?

Of course, the hole was the nest of an ostrich.  Enraged at the sight of the broken egg, the fierce bird had seized in its powerful beak that part of the shell into which the unfortunate marionette had fallen, and was now rushing across the plain with the swiftness of an express train.

The marionette screamed in terror, and with the stick which he still held in his hand rained blows upon the bird’s long neck.  But the blows had no effect whatever.  The furious creature ran and ran and ran.  Pinocchio, gasping for breath, was certain that his end was near.

The mad race lasted for hours.  Suddenly the marionette was thrown into a muddy pool, in which he sank up to his neck like a frog.  Having no desire to be suffocated in the mud, he raised his head a little, although he did not try to climb out.  What he saw surprised him beyond measure.

29.  Pinocchio Escapes Again

His ostrich was no longer alone.  There stood another.  The new arrival, somewhat smaller, but uglier and even more ferocious than the first, moved cautiously, ready for fight.  Suddenly Pinocchio saw the gleam of a knife, and an instant later the ostrich that had carried him thus far fell to the ground, wounded to death.  The marionette could not understand how it was possible for a bird to carry a knife hidden beneath its wings and to make use of it.  Yet the thing had happened right before his eyes; there was no doubt about it.

While seeking an explanation for his very strange incident, he saw the victorious ostrich draw first one arm, then the other, from beneath its feathers, and finally take off its beak and place it upon the ground.  The second ostrich was a man.

Pinocchio now began to understand what had happened, and to hate the trickster who had put on the feathers of an ostrich, in order to attack and kill the poor creature that lay there breathing its last.

The man approached the dying ostrich and tried to lift the huge bird to his shoulders, but in spite of his great strength he failed.  Then looking about in search of help, he saw the marionette, whose head was out of the water, and signaled to him to come ashore.  Pinocchio would have refused, but there was the knife lying on the ground, and there was the man.  He decided to obey.

He came out of the pond as best he could, and the ugly black man began to laugh.  He laughed and laughed until he was able to stand no longer, and could only throw himself upon the ground, where he lay, breathless and weak.  The marionette, seeing this, said to himself:  “If I do not escape now, it will be my own fault.  My dear legs, it is no dishonor to run when you must!” and he went on at a gallop toward a hill which could be seen a short distance away.