the war continued those who could get away did those who couldn’t stayed behind to fight and Sandokan’s army of killers did everything they could to kill the Coachman they laid an ambush for him one day when I had gone with a friend to Agropoli near Salerno this friend of mine was a motorcycle racer there was a race in Agropoli and I went with him because at the time I really loved motorcycle racing and when we got back to town there was an uproar because word had come in that the Coachman would pass through town in his dark blue Fiat Croma driven by his nephew but his adversaries didn’t know that the Croma was armored they waited for him in the middle of Corso Umberto outside the church two young men it was an odd thing they were both orca fat one of them was known as Ciuciù and he must have weighed three hundred and thirty pounds and the other one was called Uldrigo also known as O’nimale or the animal and he too was huge

the two fat killers take up positions at the two corners and wait for the Coachman’s Fiat Croma to come by and the minute they see it they start shooting wildly a hail of lead but the bullets just ricochet off the armored bodywork just then a young man named Angelo was driving past he was twenty-one a Jehovah’s Witness he was going to his girlfriend’s house some of the bullets ricocheted off the Coachman’s car and hit this young man driving his Fiat Uno he was killed instantly a young man who had nothing to do with it who died an absurd death a collateral loss the gang war was ferocious and violent and bloody in the press more and more space was being given to the war and the things that were happening in my town and finally after acts like this the people who at first had looked on the clan with suspicion and then with repulsion and had finally accepted it because there were opportunities to make money were now starting to wonder why all this was happening and it was more and more common to hear in apartment house courtyards people complaining about the clan though always in a whisper

XV THE VICTORY OF SANDOKAN

in a large bowl mix thoroughly together flour olive oil wine sugar and a well beaten egg knead the dough and roll it out on a floured surface and then cut it into two disks cover the bottom of a previously greased baking pan with a layer of dough then rinse the escarole very well and allow it to drip dry chop it fine and in a skillet sauté the garlic in olive oil as soon as it is golden brown remove the garlic and add the chopped anchovies the pitted black Gaeta olives the rinsed capers the raisins the pignoli and the finely chopped parsley add the escarole taking care to add the toughest leaves first then ten minutes later the tenderer leaves cover and cook over low flame adding salt and pepper to taste when almost done cooking it will take thirty-five to forty minutes if there is still too much liquid remove the lid raise the heat and allow the liquid to cook off then turn the braised escarole into the baking pan until the pan is full then cover with the other dough disk place in a preheated three hundred degree oven and bake for half an hour this is pizza di scarola agrodolce or sweet and sour escarole pizza the way my mother makes it you eat it hot or cold if you like it that way with a glass of a good Asprinio wine from our region