Giancarlo smiled.The brigands were outlaws back in the 1800s who hid out in the wilderness of Abruzzo and the rest of southern Italy when they weren’t ambushing the forces of the ruling French and Spanish invaders or extorting money from the peasantry.These desperate men came to be feared because of their cruelty on the one hand, but admired for their astonishing boldness on the other. Local legend held that brigands had left behind untold hoards of treasure stashed away in hideouts all over the region. It was all out there for the taking, if one only knew where to look.

To Giancarlo’s knowledge, no brigand treasure of any kind had ever been recovered, and he was quite certain that it was all just a myth. Just the same, going out and questing for it with Giorgio had become something of a favorite hobby. Though the two brothers were very different in many respects, oddly enough they shared a great love of hiking and exploring the mountains surrounding Castelalto, and both had come to know virtually every nook and cranny. It was a particular pleasure for Giancarlo, for it was the one athletic endeavor at which he excelled over Giorgio. Owing to his slighter build, he could easily outclimb his more heavily muscled brother.That this was so was the cause of no small amount of irritation on the part of Giorgio, who at the start of each excursion would insist on taking the lead, only to inevitably find himself falling behind and struggling to keep up as soon as the trail grew steep.

“So, what do you plan to do?” said Giancarlo of the brigands’ mythical treasure.

“Go after it of course!” cried Giorgio. “Do you want to come with me?”

“No,” Giancarlo had replied. “I want to finish practicing.”

Giorgio eyed him for a moment before giving another shrug.

“Eh, have it your way,” he said nonchalantly. “I suppose it’s better if you don’t come, anyway.”

Then he turned to go.

“What do you mean ‘it’s better’?” Giancarlo called after him.

“You’ll just hold me up,” said his brother, looking back at him with an arch grin. “And I don’t want to waste time.”

Giancarlo knew that he was being baited. Nonetheless, now that the gauntlet had been tossed down, he felt compelled to pick it up.

“All right,” he grumbled. “Give me ten more minutes to play, and then I’ll go get my pack ready.”