As he ran, the Marionette felt more and more certain that he would have to give himself up into the hands of his pursuers. Suddenly he saw a little cottage gleaming white as the snow among the trees of the forest. "If I have enough breath left with which to reach that little house, I may be saved," he said to himself. Not waiting another moment, he darted swiftly through the woods, the Assassins still after him. After a hard race of almost an hour, tired and out of breath, Pinocchio finally reached the door of the cottage and knocked. No one answered. He knocked again, harder than before, for behind him he heard the steps and the labored breathing of his persecutors. The same silence followed.