Speaker 1: Chapter fifty three of Great Expectations. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Great
Speaker 1: Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty three. It was a
Speaker 1: dark night, though the full moon rose. As I left
Speaker 1: the enclosed lands and passed out upon the marshes. Beyond
Speaker 1: their dark line, there was a ribbon of clear sky,
Speaker 1: hardly broad enough to hold the red large moon. In
Speaker 1: a few minutes she had ascended out of that clear field.
Speaker 1: In among the piled mountains of cloud. There was a
Speaker 1: melancholy wind, and the marshes were very dismal. A stranger
Speaker 1: would have found them insupportable, and even to me they
Speaker 1: were so oppressive that I hesitated, half inclined to go back.
Speaker 1: But I knew them well, and could have found my
Speaker 1: way on a far darker night, and had no excuse
Speaker 1: for returning being there. So, having come there against my inclination,
Speaker 1: I went on against it. The direction that I took
Speaker 1: was not that in which my old home lay, nor
Speaker 1: that in which we had pursued the convicts. My back
Speaker 1: was turned towards the distant hulks as I walked on,
Speaker 1: and though I could see the old lights away on
Speaker 1: the spits of sand, I saw them over my shoulder.
Speaker 1: I knew the lime kiln as well as I knew
Speaker 1: the old battery, but they were miles apart, so that
Speaker 1: if a light had been burning at each point that night,
Speaker 1: there would have been a long strip of the blank
Speaker 1: horizon between the two bright specks. At first I had
Speaker 1: to shut some gates after me, and now and then
Speaker 1: to stand still while the cattle that were lying in
Speaker 1: the banked up pathway arose and blundered down among the
Speaker 1: grass and reeds. But after a little while, while I
Speaker 1: seemed to have the whole flats to myself, it was
Speaker 1: another half hour before I drew near to the kiln.
Speaker 1: The line was burning with a sluggish, stifling smell, but
Speaker 1: the fires were made up and left, and no workmen
Speaker 1: were visible. Hard by was a small stone quarry. It
Speaker 1: lay directly in my way and had been worked that day,
Speaker 1: as I saw by the tools and barrows that were
Speaker 1: lying about coming up again to the marsh level. Out
Speaker 1: of this excavation for the rude path lay through it.
Speaker 1: I saw a light in the old sluice house. I
Speaker 1: quickened my pace and knocked at the door with my hand,
Speaker 1: waiting for some reply. I looked about me, noticing how
Speaker 1: the sluice was abandoned and broken, and how the house
Speaker 1: of wood with a tiled roof would not be proof
Speaker 1: against the weather much longer if it were so even now,
Speaker 1: and how the mud and ooze were coated with lime,
Speaker 1: and how the choking vapor of the kiln crept in
Speaker 1: a ghostly way towards me. Still there was no answer,
Speaker 1: and I knocked again. No answer still, and I tried
Speaker 1: to latch. It rose under my hand and the door yielded.
Speaker 1: Looking in I saw a lighted candle on a table,
Speaker 1: a bench, and a mattress on a truckle bedstead. As
Speaker 1: there was a loft above. I called is any one here?
Speaker 1: But no voice answered. Then I looked at my watch, and,
Speaker 1: finding that it was past nine, called again is there
Speaker 1: any one here? There being still no answer, I went
Speaker 1: out at the door, irresolute what to do. It was
Speaker 1: beginning to rain fast. Seeing nothing save what I had
Speaker 1: seen already, I turned back into the house and stood
Speaker 1: just within the shelter of the doorway, looking out into
Speaker 1: the night. While I was considering that some one must
Speaker 1: have been there lately. I must soon be coming back,
Speaker 1: or the candle would not be burning, it came into
Speaker 1: my head to look if the wick were long. I
Speaker 1: turned round to do so, and had taken up the
Speaker 1: candle in my hand when it was extinguished by some
Speaker 1: violent shock. And the next thing I comprehended was that
Speaker 1: I had been caught in a strong running noose thrown
Speaker 1: over my head from behind. Now, said a suppressed voice,
Speaker 1: with an oath. I've got you. What is this? I cried, struggling,
Speaker 1: who is it? Help? Help, Help? Not only were my
Speaker 1: arms pulled close to my sides, but the pressure on
Speaker 1: my bad arm caused me exquisite pain. Sometimes a strong
Speaker 1: man's hand, sometimes a strong man's breast, was set against
Speaker 1: my mouth to deaden my cries. And with a hot
Speaker 1: breath always close to me, I struggled ineffectually in the
Speaker 1: dark while I was fastened tight to the wall. And
Speaker 1: now said the suppressed voice, with another oath, Call out again,
Speaker 1: and I'll make short work of you. Faint and sick
Speaker 1: with the pain of my injured arm, bewildered by the suppor,
Speaker 1: and yet conscious how easily this threat could be put
Speaker 1: in execution. I desisted and tried to ease my armward
Speaker 1: ever so little, but it was bound too tight for that.
Speaker 1: I felt as if, having been burnt before, it was
Speaker 1: now being broiled. The sudden exclusion of the night, and
Speaker 1: the substitution of black darkness in its place, warned me
Speaker 1: that the man had closed a shutter. After groping about
Speaker 1: for a little, he found the flint and steel he wanted,
Speaker 1: and began to strike a light. I strained my sight
Speaker 1: upon the sparks that fell among the tinder, and upon
Speaker 1: which he breathed, and breathed, match in hand, but I
Speaker 1: could only see his lips and the blue point of
Speaker 1: the match, even those, but fitfully the tinder was damp.
Speaker 1: No wonder there, and one after another the sparks died out.
Speaker 1: The man was in no hurry and struck again with
Speaker 1: the flint and steel. As the sparks fell thick and
Speaker 1: bright about him, I could see his hands and touches
Speaker 1: of his face, and could make out that he was
Speaker 1: seated and bending over the table, but nothing more. Presently
Speaker 1: I saw his blue lips again breathing on the tinder,
Speaker 1: and then a flare of light flashed up and showed
Speaker 1: me Porlick, whom I had looked for. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I had not looked for him. Seeing him, I felt
Speaker 1: that I was in a dangerous strait, indeed, and I
Speaker 1: kept my eyes upon him. He lighted the candle from
Speaker 1: the flaring match with great deliberation, and dropped the match
Speaker 1: and trotted out. Then he put the candle away from
Speaker 1: him on the table so that he could see me,
Speaker 1: and sat with his arms folded on the table and
Speaker 1: looked at me. I made out that I was fastened
Speaker 1: to a stout perpendicular ladder a few inches from the wall,
Speaker 1: a fixture there the means of ascent to the loft above. Now,
Speaker 1: said he, when we had surveyed one another for some time,
Speaker 1: I've got you unbind me. Let me go, ah, he returned.
Speaker 1: I'll let you go. I'll let you go to the moon.
Speaker 1: I'll let you go to the stars, all in good time.
Speaker 1: Why have you lured me here, don't you know? Said he,
Speaker 1: with a deadly look. Why have you set upon me
Speaker 1: in the dark? Because I mean to do it all myself.
Speaker 1: One keeps a secret better than two. Oh, you enemy,
Speaker 1: you enemy. His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished as
Speaker 1: he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking
Speaker 1: his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity
Speaker 1: in it that made me tremble as I watched him
Speaker 1: in silence. He put his hand into the corner at
Speaker 1: his side and took up a gun with a brass
Speaker 1: bound stock. Do you know this, said he, making as
Speaker 1: if he would take aim at me. Do you know
Speaker 1: where you saw it? A four speak wolf? Yes, I answered,
Speaker 1: You cost me that place you did speak? What else
Speaker 1: could I do? You did that, and that would be
Speaker 1: enough without more? How dared you to come betwixt me
Speaker 1: and a young woman I liked? When? Did I? When
Speaker 1: didn't you? It was you, as always give old orlick
Speaker 1: a bad name to her. You gave it to yourself.
Speaker 1: You gained it for yourself. I could have done you
Speaker 1: no harm if you had done yourself none. You're a liar,
Speaker 1: and you'll take any pains and spend any money to
Speaker 1: drive me out of this country, will you? Said he,
Speaker 1: repeating my words to Biddy in the last interview I
Speaker 1: had with her. Now I'll tell you a piece of information.
Speaker 1: It was never so well worth your while to get
Speaker 1: me out of this country as it is tonight. Ah,
Speaker 1: if it was all your money twenty times told to
Speaker 1: the last brass farthing. As he shook his heavy hand
Speaker 1: at me, with his mouth snarling like a tiger's, I
Speaker 1: felt that it was true. What are you going to
Speaker 1: do to me? I'm a goin, said he, bringing his
Speaker 1: fist down upon the table with a heavy blow, and
Speaker 1: rising as the blow fell to give it greater force.
Speaker 1: I'm a going to have your life. He leaned forward,
Speaker 1: staring at me, slowly, unclenched his hand and drew it
Speaker 1: across his mouth, as if his mouth watered for me,
Speaker 1: and sat down again. You was always in old orlex ways,
Speaker 1: ever since you was a child. You goes out of
Speaker 1: his way. This present night, he'll have no more on you.
Speaker 1: You're dead. I felt that I had come to the
Speaker 1: brink of my grave. For a moment I looked wildly
Speaker 1: round my trap for any chance of escape, but there
Speaker 1: was none more than that, said he, holding his arms
Speaker 1: on the table again. I won't have a rag of you.
Speaker 1: I won't have a bone of you left on earth.
Speaker 1: I'll put your body in the kiln. I'd carry two
Speaker 1: such to it on my shoulders, and let people suppose
Speaker 1: what they may of you. They shall never know nothing.
Speaker 1: My mind, with inconceivable rapidity, followed out all the consequences
Speaker 1: of such a death. Estella's father would believe I had
Speaker 1: deserted him, would be taken, would die accusing me. Even
Speaker 1: Herbert would doubt me when he compared the letter I
Speaker 1: had left for him with the fact that I'd called
Speaker 1: at Miss Havisham's gate for only a moment. Joe and
Speaker 1: Biddy would never know how sorry I had been that night.
Speaker 1: None would ever know what I had suffered, how true
Speaker 1: I had meant to be, what an agony I had
Speaker 1: passed through. The death close before me was terrible. But
Speaker 1: far more terrible than death was the dread of being
Speaker 1: misremembered after death. And so quick were my thoughts that
Speaker 1: I saw myself despised by unborn generations as Stella's children
Speaker 1: and their children. While the wretch's words were yet on
Speaker 1: his lips, now Wolf said he afore, I kill you
Speaker 1: like any other beast, which is what I mean to do,
Speaker 1: and what I have tied you up for. I'll have
Speaker 1: a good look at you, and have a good goad
Speaker 1: at you, oh, you enemy. It had passed through my
Speaker 1: thoughts to cry out for help again, though few could
Speaker 1: know better than I the solitary nature of the spot
Speaker 1: and the hopelessness of aid. But as he sat gloating
Speaker 1: over me, I was supported by a scornful detestation of
Speaker 1: him that sealed my lips. Above all things. I resolved
Speaker 1: that I would not entreat him, and that I would die,
Speaker 1: making some last poor resistance to him. Softened as my
Speaker 1: thoughts of all the rest of men were in that
Speaker 1: dire extremity, humbly beseeching pardon as I did of Heaven,
Speaker 1: melt it at heart as I was by the thought
Speaker 1: that I had taken no farewell, and never now could
Speaker 1: take farewell of those who were dear to me, or
Speaker 1: could explain myself to them, or ask for their compassion
Speaker 1: on my miserable errors. Still, if I could have killed him,
Speaker 1: even in dying, I would have done it. He had
Speaker 1: been drinking, and his eyes were red and bloodshot. Around
Speaker 1: his neck was slung a tinged bottle, as I had
Speaker 1: often seen his meat and drink slung about him in
Speaker 1: other days. He brought the bottle to his lips and
Speaker 1: took a fiery drink from it. And I smelt the
Speaker 1: strong spirits that I saw flash into his face, wolf said,
Speaker 1: he folding his arms again, Old or Alexa, going to
Speaker 1: tell you something. It was you, as did for your
Speaker 1: shrewd sister. Again, my mind, with its former inconceivable rapidity,
Speaker 1: had exhausted the whole subject of the attack upon my sister,
Speaker 1: her illness and her before his slow and hesitating speech
Speaker 1: had formed these words. It was you, villain, said I
Speaker 1: I tell you it was your doing. I tell you
Speaker 1: it was done through you. He retorted, catching up the
Speaker 1: gun and making a blow with the stock at the
Speaker 1: vacant air between us. I come upon her from behind,
Speaker 1: as they come upon you to night. I give it her.
Speaker 1: I had left her for dead, And if there had
Speaker 1: been a lime kiln as nigh her as there is
Speaker 1: now nigh you, she shouldn't have come to life again.
Speaker 1: But it warn't Old orlick As did it. It was you.
Speaker 1: You was favored, and he was bullied and beat Old
Speaker 1: or like bullied and beat eh. Now you pays for it.
Speaker 1: You done it. Now you pays for it. He drank
Speaker 1: again and became more ferocious. I saw by his tilting
Speaker 1: of the bottle that there was no great quantity left
Speaker 1: in it. I distinctly understood that he was working himself
Speaker 1: up with its contents to make an end of me.
Speaker 1: I knew that every drop it held was a drop
Speaker 1: of my life. I knew that when I was changed
Speaker 1: into a part of the vapor that crept towards me
Speaker 1: but a little while before, like my own warning ghost,
Speaker 1: he would do as he had done in my sister's case,
Speaker 1: make all haste to the town and be seen slouching
Speaker 1: about there, drinking at the ale houses. My rapid mind
Speaker 1: pursued him to the town, made a picture of the
Speaker 1: street with him in it, and contrasted its lights and
Speaker 1: life with the lonely marsh and the white vapor creeping
Speaker 1: over it into which I should have dissolved. It was
Speaker 1: not only that I could have summed up years and
Speaker 1: years and years while he said a dozen words, but
Speaker 1: that what he did say presented pictures to me, and
Speaker 1: not mere words. In the excited and exalted state of
Speaker 1: my brain, I could not think of a place without
Speaker 1: seeing it, or of persons without seeing the them. It
Speaker 1: is impossible to overstate the vividness of these images. And
Speaker 1: yet I was so intent all the time upon him himself,
Speaker 1: who would not be intent on the tiger crouching to spring?
Speaker 1: That I knew of the slightest action of his fingers.
Speaker 1: When he had drunk the second time, he rose from
Speaker 1: the bench on which he sat, and pushed the table aside.
Speaker 1: Then he took up the candle, and shading it with
Speaker 1: his murderous hand so as to throw its light on me,
Speaker 1: stood before me, looking at me and enjoying the sight. Wulf,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something more. It was old or like.
Speaker 1: As you tumbled over on your stairs that night, I
Speaker 1: saw the staircase with its extinguished lamps. I saw the
Speaker 1: shadows of the heavy stair rails thrown by the watchman's
Speaker 1: lantern on the wall. I saw the rooms that I
Speaker 1: was never to see again. Here a door half open,
Speaker 1: there a door closed, all the articles of furniture around,
Speaker 1: And why was old orlick there? I'll tell you something more, Wolf,
Speaker 1: You and her have pretty well hunted me out of
Speaker 1: this country, so far as getting an easy living in
Speaker 1: it goes. And I've took up with new companions and
Speaker 1: new masters, some of them, writes my letters. When I
Speaker 1: once some wrote, do you mind? Writes my letters wolf,
Speaker 1: They writes fifty hands. They're not like sneaking you, as
Speaker 1: writes but one. I've a firm mind and a firm
Speaker 1: will to have your life. Since she was down here
Speaker 1: at your sister's burying, I hadn't seen a way to
Speaker 1: get you safe, And I've looked out of you to
Speaker 1: know your ins and outs. Four says old Orlick to
Speaker 1: himself somehow or another. I'll have him what when it
Speaker 1: looks for you? I find your uncle, proves say mill
Speaker 1: pond bank, and Chink's basin, and the old green copper
Speaker 1: rope walk, all so clear and plain, provis in his rooms,
Speaker 1: the signal whose use was over, Pretty Clara, the good
Speaker 1: motherly woman, Old Bill Barley on his back, all drifting
Speaker 1: by as on the swift stream of my life, fast
Speaker 1: running out to see you with an uncle too. Why
Speaker 1: I knowed you at Gargrey's when you was so small
Speaker 1: a wolf, that I could have took your weason betwixt
Speaker 1: this finger and thumb and chucked you away dead, as
Speaker 1: I'd thoughts of doin odd times. When I see you
Speaker 1: loitering amongst the pollards on a Sunday, and you hadn't
Speaker 1: found no uncles, then, no, not you. But when Old
Speaker 1: Orleck come for to hear that your uncle Provis had
Speaker 1: most like wore the leg iron, what Old Orleck had
Speaker 1: picked up filed asunder on these marshes ever so many
Speaker 1: year ago, and what he kept by him till he
Speaker 1: dropped your sister with it like a bullet, as he
Speaker 1: means to drop you. Hey, when he come for to
Speaker 1: hear that, Hey, in his savage taunting, he flared the
Speaker 1: candle so close at me that I turned my face
Speaker 1: aside to save it from the flame. Ah, he cried,
Speaker 1: laughing after doing it again, the burnt child dreads the fire.
Speaker 1: Old Orleck knowed you was burnt. Old Orleck knowed you
Speaker 1: was smuggling your uncle Provis away. Old Orleck's a match
Speaker 1: for you, and knowed you'd come tonight. Now I'll tell
Speaker 1: you something more, wolf, and this ends it. There's them
Speaker 1: that's as good a match for your uncle Provis as
Speaker 1: Old Orleck has been for you. Let him wear them
Speaker 1: when he's lost his nevy. Let him wear them when
Speaker 1: no man can't find a rag of his dear relations clothes,
Speaker 1: nor yet a bone of his body. There's them that
Speaker 1: can't and that won't have Magwitch. Yes, I know the
Speaker 1: name alive and the same land with them, and that's
Speaker 1: had such sure information of him when he was alive
Speaker 1: in another land, as that he couldn't and shouldn't leave
Speaker 1: it unbeknown and put them in danger. Perhaps it's them
Speaker 1: that writes fifty hands, and that's not like sneaking you
Speaker 1: as rights, but one where compysin Magwitch and the gallows.
Speaker 1: He flared the candle at me again, smoking my face
Speaker 1: and hair, and for an instant blinding me, and turned
Speaker 1: his powerful back as he replaced the light on the table.
Speaker 1: I had thought a prayer, and had been with Joe
Speaker 1: and Biddy and Herbert before he turned towards me again.
Speaker 1: There was a clear space of a few feet between
Speaker 1: the table and the opposite wall. Within this space he
Speaker 1: now slouched backwards and forwards. His great strength seemed to
Speaker 1: sit stronger upon him than ever before. As he did this,
Speaker 1: with his hands hanging loose and heavy at his sides,
Speaker 1: and with his eyes scowling at me, I had no
Speaker 1: grain of hope left wild as my inward hurry was,
Speaker 1: and wonderful the force of the pictures that rushed by
Speaker 1: me instead of thoughts. I could yet clearly understand that
Speaker 1: unless he had resolved that I was within a few
Speaker 1: moments of surely perishing out of all human knowledge, he
Speaker 1: would never have told me what he had told of.
Speaker 1: A sudden he stopped, took the cork out of his bottle,
Speaker 1: and tossed it away. Light as it was, I heard
Speaker 1: it fall like a plummet. He swallowed, slowly, tilting up
Speaker 1: the bottle by little and little, and now he looked
Speaker 1: at me no more. The last few drops of liquor
Speaker 1: he poured into the palm of his hand and licked up. Then,
Speaker 1: with a sudden hurry of violence, and swearing horribly, he
Speaker 1: threw the bottle from him and stooped, and I saw
Speaker 1: in his hand a stone hammer with a long, heavy handle.
Speaker 1: The resolution I had made did not desert me, for
Speaker 1: without uttering one vain word of appeal to him, I
Speaker 1: shouted out with all my might, and struggled with all
Speaker 1: my might. It was only my head and my legs
Speaker 1: that I could move, But to that extent I struggled
Speaker 1: with all the force until then unknown that was within me.
Speaker 1: In the same instant, I heard responsive shouts, saw figures
Speaker 1: and a gleam of light dashing at the door, heard
Speaker 1: voices and tumult, and saw orlick emerge from a struggle
Speaker 1: of men, as if it were tumbling water, clear the
Speaker 1: table at a leap, and fly out into the night.
Speaker 1: After a blank, I found that I was lying unbound
Speaker 1: on the floor in the same place, with my head
Speaker 1: on some one's knee. My eyes were fixed on the
Speaker 1: ladder against the wall. When I came to myself had
Speaker 1: opened on it before my mind saw it, And thus,
Speaker 1: as I recovered consciousness, I knew that I was in
Speaker 1: the place where I had lost it two. Indifferent at
Speaker 1: first even to look round and ascertain who supported me.
Speaker 1: I was lying looking at the ladder when there came
Speaker 1: between me and it a face, the face of Trab's boy.
Speaker 1: I think he's all right, said TRAbs Boy in a
Speaker 1: sober voice. But ain't he just pale? Though at these words,
Speaker 1: the face of him who supported me looked over into mine,
Speaker 1: and I saw my supporter to be Herbert Great Heaven softly,
Speaker 1: said Herbert gently, handle don't be too eager, and our
Speaker 1: old comrade star Top I cried, as he too bent
Speaker 1: over me. Remember what he is going to assist us in,
Speaker 1: said Herbert, and be calm. The illusion made me spring up,
Speaker 1: though I dropped again from the pain in my arm.
Speaker 1: The time has not gone by, Herbert, has it? What
Speaker 1: night is to night? How long have I been here?
Speaker 1: I had a strange and strong misgiving that I had
Speaker 1: been lying there a long time, a day and a night,
Speaker 1: two days and nights more. The time has not gone by.
Speaker 1: It is still Monday night, thank God. And you have
Speaker 1: all tomorrow Tuesday to rest in, said Herbert. But you
Speaker 1: can't help groaning, my dear handel. What hurt have you got?
Speaker 1: Can you stand? Yes? Yes, said I. I can walk.
Speaker 1: I have no hurt. But in this throbbing arm. They
Speaker 1: laid it bare and did what they could. It was
Speaker 1: violently swollen and inflamed, and I could scarcely endure to
Speaker 1: have it touched. But they tore up their handkerchiefs to
Speaker 1: make fresh bandages, and carefully replaced it in the sling
Speaker 1: until we could get to the town and obtain some
Speaker 1: cooling lotion to put upon it. In a little while,
Speaker 1: we had shut the door of the dark and empty
Speaker 1: sluice house and were passing through the quarry on our
Speaker 1: way back TRAbs. Boy Trab's overgrown young man now went
Speaker 1: before us with a lantern, which was the light I
Speaker 1: had seen come in at the door. But the moon
Speaker 1: was a good two hours higher than when I had
Speaker 1: last seen the sky, and the night, though rainy, was
Speaker 1: much lighter. The white vapor of the kiln was passing
Speaker 1: from us as we went by, and as I had
Speaker 1: thought a prayer before, I thought a thanksgiving. Now entreating
Speaker 1: Herbert to tell me how he had come to my rescue,
Speaker 1: which at first he had flatly refused to do, but
Speaker 1: had insisted on my remaining quiet, I learned that I had,
Speaker 1: in my hurry dropped the letter open in our chambers,
Speaker 1: where he coming home to bring with him Star Top,
Speaker 1: whom he had met in the street on his way
Speaker 1: to me, found it very soon after I was gone.
Speaker 1: Its tone made him uneasy, and the more so because
Speaker 1: of the inconsistency between it and the hasty letter I
Speaker 1: had left for him, his uneasiness increasing. Instead of subsiding,
Speaker 1: after a quarter of an hour's consideration, he set off
Speaker 1: for the coach office with Startop, who volunteered his company
Speaker 1: to make inquiry when the next coach went down, Finding
Speaker 1: that the afternoon coach was gone, and, finding that his
Speaker 1: uneasiness grew into positive alarm as obstacles came in his way,
Speaker 1: he resolved to follow in a post chaise. So he
Speaker 1: and Startop arrived at the Blue Boar, fully expecting there
Speaker 1: to find me or tidings of me, but finding neither,
Speaker 1: went on to miss Havisham's, where they lost me. Hereupon
Speaker 1: they went back to the hotel, doubtless at about the
Speaker 1: time when I was hearing the popular local version of
Speaker 1: my own story, to refresh themselves and get someone to
Speaker 1: guide them out upon the marshes. Among the loungers under
Speaker 1: the Boer's archway happened to be traps Boy, true to
Speaker 1: his ancient habit of happening to be everywhere where he
Speaker 1: had no business, And Trab's Boy had seen me passing
Speaker 1: from his Havishams in the direction of my dining place.
Speaker 1: Thus Trab's Boy became their guide, and with him they
Speaker 1: went out to the Sluice House, though by the town
Speaker 1: way to the marshes, which I had avoided. Now. As
Speaker 1: they went along, Herbert reflected that I might, after all
Speaker 1: have been brought there on some genuine and serviceable errand,
Speaker 1: tending to provis his safety, and bethinking himself that in
Speaker 1: that case interruption must be mischievous, left his guide and
Speaker 1: startop on the edge of the quarry, and went on
Speaker 1: by himself, and stole round the house two or three times,
Speaker 1: endeavoring to ascertain whether all was right within, as he
Speaker 1: could hear nothing but indistinct sounds of one deep, rough voice.
Speaker 1: This was while my mind was so busy. He even
Speaker 1: at last began to doubt whether I was there, when
Speaker 1: suddenly I cried out loudly, and he answered the criesushin,
Speaker 1: closely followed by the other two. When I told Herbert
Speaker 1: what had passed within the house, he was for our
Speaker 1: immediately going before a magistrate in the town, late at
Speaker 1: night as it was, and getting out a warrant. But
Speaker 1: I had already considered that such a course, by detaining
Speaker 1: us there or binding us to come back, might be
Speaker 1: fatal to provis There was no gainsaying this difficulty, and
Speaker 1: we relinquished all thoughts of pursuing orlick at that time.
Speaker 1: For the present, Under the circumstances, we deemed it prudent
Speaker 1: to make rather light of the matter to Trap's boy,
Speaker 1: who I am convinced would have been much affected by
Speaker 1: disappointment if he had known that his intervention saved me
Speaker 1: from the lime kiln. Not that traps Boy was of
Speaker 1: a malignant nature, but that he had too much spare
Speaker 1: of vivacity, and that it was in his constitution to
Speaker 1: want variety and excitement at anybody's expense. When we parted,
Speaker 1: I presented him with two guineas which seemed to meet
Speaker 1: his views, and told him that I was sorry ever
Speaker 1: to have had an ill opinion of him, which made
Speaker 1: no impression on him at all. Wednesday, being so close
Speaker 1: upon us, we determined to go back to London that
Speaker 1: night three in the post jaise the rather as we
Speaker 1: should then be clear away before the night's adventure began
Speaker 1: to be talked of. Herbert got a large bottle of
Speaker 1: stuff from my arm, and by dint of having this
Speaker 1: stuff dropped over it all the night through, I was
Speaker 1: just able to bear its pain. On the journey. It
Speaker 1: was daylight when we reached the temple, and I went
Speaker 1: at once to bed and lay in bed all day.
Speaker 1: My terror as I lay there, of falling ill and
Speaker 1: being unfitted for tomorrow was so besetting that I wonder
Speaker 1: it did not disable me of itself. It would have
Speaker 1: done so pretty surely, in conjunction with the mental wear
Speaker 1: and tear I had suffered, but for the unnatural strain
Speaker 1: upon me that tomorrow was so anxiously looked forward to,
Speaker 1: charged with such consequences, its results so impenetrably hidden though
Speaker 1: so near, No precaution could have been more obvious than
Speaker 1: our refraining from communication with him that day. Yet this
Speaker 1: again increased my restlessness. I started at every footstep and
Speaker 1: every sound, believing that he was discovered and taken, and
Speaker 1: this was the messenger to tell me. So I persuaded
Speaker 1: myself that I knew he was taken, that there was
Speaker 1: something more upon my mind than a fear or a presentiment,
Speaker 1: that the fact had occurred, and I had a mysterious
Speaker 1: knowledge of it. As the days wore on and no
Speaker 1: ill news came, as the day closed in and darkness fell,
Speaker 1: my overshadowing dread of being disabled by illness before tomorrow
Speaker 1: morning altogether mastered me. My burning arm throbbed and my
Speaker 1: burning head throbbed, and I fancied I was beginning to wander.
Speaker 1: I counted up to high numbers to make sure of
Speaker 1: myself and repeated passages that I knew in prose and verse.
Speaker 1: It happened sometimes that, in the mere escape of a
Speaker 1: fatigued mind, I dozed for some moments or forgot. Then
Speaker 1: I would say to myself with a start, Now it
Speaker 1: has come, and I am turning delirious. They kept me
Speaker 1: very quiet all day, and kept my arm constantly dressed,
Speaker 1: and gave me cooling drinks. Whenever I fell asleep, I
Speaker 1: awoke with the notion I had had in the sluice
Speaker 1: house that a long time had elapsed and the opportunity
Speaker 1: to save him was gone. About midnight I got out
Speaker 1: of bed and went to Herbert with a conviction that
Speaker 1: I had been asleep for four and twenty hours and
Speaker 1: that Wednesday was past. It was the last self exhausting
Speaker 1: effort of my fretfulness, for after that I slept soundly.
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning was dawning. When I looked out of window,
Speaker 1: the winking lights upon the bridges were already pale. The
Speaker 1: coming sun was like a marsh of fire on the horizon.
Speaker 1: The river, still dark and mysterious, was spanned by bridges
Speaker 1: that were turning coldly gray, with here and there at
Speaker 1: top a warm touch from the burning in the sky.
Speaker 1: As I looked along the clustered roofs, with church towers
Speaker 1: and spires shooting into the unusually clear air, the sun
Speaker 1: rose up, and a veil seemed to be drawn from
Speaker 1: the river, and millions of sparkles burst out upon its waters.
Speaker 1: From me, too, a veil seemed to be drawn, and
Speaker 1: I felt strong and well. Herbert lay asleep in his bed,
Speaker 1: and our old fellow student lay asleep on the sofa.
Speaker 1: I could not dress myself without help, but I made
Speaker 1: up the fire, which was still burning, and got some
Speaker 1: coffee ready for them. In good time they two started
Speaker 1: up strong and well, and we admitted the sharp morning
Speaker 1: air at the windows and looked at the tide that
Speaker 1: was still flowing towards us. When it turns at nine o'clock,
Speaker 1: said Herbert, cheerfully, look out for us, and stand ready
Speaker 1: you over there at mill pond bank. End of chapter