Speaker 1: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, chapter fifty three. It was
Speaker 1: a dark night, though the full moon rose. As I
Speaker 1: left the enclosed lands and passed out upon the marshes.
Speaker 1: Beyond their dark line, there was a ribbon of clear sky,
Speaker 1: hardly brought 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 convent. 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 I seemed
Speaker 1: to have the whole flats to myself. It was another
Speaker 1: half hour before I drew near to the kiln. The
Speaker 1: lime was burning with a sluggish, stifling smell, but the
Speaker 1: fires were made up and left, and no workmen were visible.
Speaker 1: Hard By was a small stone quarry. It lay directly
Speaker 1: in my way and had been worked that day. As
Speaker 1: I saw by the tools and barrows that were lying
Speaker 1: about coming up again to the marsh level out of
Speaker 1: this excavation for the rude path lay through it, I
Speaker 1: saw a light in the old sluice house. I quickened
Speaker 1: 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 someone must have
Speaker 1: been there lately, I must soon be coming back, or
Speaker 1: the candle would not be burning, it came into my
Speaker 1: head to look if the wick were long. I turned
Speaker 1: round to do so, and had taken up the candle
Speaker 1: in my hand when it was extinguished by some violent shock.
Speaker 1: And the next thing I comprehended was that I had
Speaker 1: been caught in a strong running noose thrown over my
Speaker 1: head from behind. Now, said a suppressed voice, with an oath,
Speaker 1: I've got you. What is this? I cried, struggling, who
Speaker 1: is help? Help? Help? Not only were my arms pulled
Speaker 1: close to my sides, but the pressure on my bad
Speaker 1: arm caused me exquisite pain. Sometimes a strong man's hand,
Speaker 1: sometimes a strong man's breast, was set against my mouth
Speaker 1: to deaden my cries. And with a hot breath always
Speaker 1: close to me, I struggled ineffectually in the dark, while
Speaker 1: I was fastened tight to the wall. And now said
Speaker 1: the suppressed voice, with another oath, Call out again, and
Speaker 1: I'll make short work of you. Faint and sick with
Speaker 1: the pain of my injured arm, bewildered by the surprise,
Speaker 1: and yet conscious how easily this threat could be put
Speaker 1: in execution, I desisted and tried to ease my arm
Speaker 1: ward ever so little, but it was bound too tight
Speaker 1: for that. I felt as if, having been burnt before,
Speaker 1: it was now being broiled The sudden exclusion of the
Speaker 1: night and the substitution of black darkness in its place,
Speaker 1: warned me that the man had closed a shutter. After
Speaker 1: groping about for a little, he found the flint and
Speaker 1: steel he wanted, and began to strike a light. I
Speaker 1: strained my sight upon the sparks that fell among the tinder,
Speaker 1: and upon which he breathed and breathed, match in hand,
Speaker 1: but I could only see his lips and the blue
Speaker 1: point of the match, even those, But fitfully the tender
Speaker 1: was damp. No wonder there, and one after another the
Speaker 1: sparks died out. The man was in no hurry and
Speaker 1: struck again with the flint and steel. As the sparks
Speaker 1: fell thick and bright about him, I could see his
Speaker 1: hands and touches of his face, and could make out
Speaker 1: that he was seated and bending over the table, but
Speaker 1: nothing more. Presently I saw his blue lips again, breathing
Speaker 1: on the tinder, and then a flare of light flashed
Speaker 1: up and showed me Porlick, whom I had looked for.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I had not looked for him. Seeing him,
Speaker 1: I felt that I was in a dangerous strait. Indeed,
Speaker 1: and I kept my eyes upon him. He lighted the
Speaker 1: candle from the flaring match with great deliberation, and dropped
Speaker 1: the match and trotted out. Then he put the candle
Speaker 1: away from him on the table so that he could
Speaker 1: see me, and sat with his arms folded on the
Speaker 1: table and looked at me. I made out that I
Speaker 1: was fastened to a stout perpendicular ladder a few inches
Speaker 1: from the wall, a fixture there the means of ascent
Speaker 1: to the loft above. Now, said he, when we had
Speaker 1: surveyed one another for some time, I've got you unbind me.
Speaker 1: Let me go, ah, he returned, I'll let you go.
Speaker 1: I'll let you go to the moon. I'll let you
Speaker 1: go to the stars, all in good time. Why have
Speaker 1: you lured me here? Don't you know? Said he, with
Speaker 1: a deadly look. Why have you set upon me in
Speaker 1: 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? Afore? 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 Orleck's 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'd come to the brink
Speaker 1: of my grave. For a moment, I looked wildly round
Speaker 1: my trap for any chance of escape, but there was none.
Speaker 1: More than that, said he, folding his arms on the
Speaker 1: table again. I won't have a rag of you. I
Speaker 1: won't have a bone of you left on earth. I'll
Speaker 1: put your body in the kiln. I'd carry two such
Speaker 1: to it on my shoulders, and let people suppose what
Speaker 1: they may of you. They shall never know nothing. My mind,
Speaker 1: with inconceivable rapidity, followed out all all the consequences of
Speaker 1: such a death. Estella's father would believe I had deserted him,
Speaker 1: would be taken, would die accusing me. Even Herbert would
Speaker 1: doubt me when he compared the letter I had left
Speaker 1: for him with the fact that I'd called at Miss
Speaker 1: Havisham's gate for only a moment. Joe and Biddie would
Speaker 1: never know how sorry I had been that night. None
Speaker 1: would ever know what I had suffered, how true I
Speaker 1: had meant to be, what an agony I had passed through.
Speaker 1: The death close before me was terrible. But far more
Speaker 1: terrible than death was the dread of being misremembered after death.
Speaker 1: And so quick were my thoughts that I saw myself
Speaker 1: despised by unborn generations, Estella's children and their children. While
Speaker 1: the wretch's words were yet on his lips, now Wolf
Speaker 1: said he afore I kill you like any other beast,
Speaker 1: which is what I mean to do, and what I
Speaker 1: have tied you up for. I'll have a good look
Speaker 1: at you, and have a good goat food at you, Oh,
Speaker 1: you enemy. It had passed through my thoughts to cry
Speaker 1: out for help again, though few could know better than
Speaker 1: I the solitary nature of the spot and the hopelessness
Speaker 1: of aid. But as he sat gloating over me. I
Speaker 1: was supported by a scornful detestation of him that sealed
Speaker 1: my lips. Above all things. I resolved that I would
Speaker 1: not entreat him, and that I would die making some
Speaker 1: last poor resistance to him. Softened as my thoughts of
Speaker 1: all the rest of men were in that dire extremity,
Speaker 1: humbly beseeching pardon as I did of Heaven, melted at
Speaker 1: heart as I was, by the thought that I had
Speaker 1: taken no farewell, and never now could take farewell of
Speaker 1: those who were dear to me, or could explain myself
Speaker 1: to them, or ask for their compassion on my miserable errors. Still,
Speaker 1: if I could have killed him, even in dying, I
Speaker 1: would have done it. He had been drinking, and his
Speaker 1: eyes were red and bloodshot. Around his neck was slung
Speaker 1: a tinged bottle, as I had often seen his meat
Speaker 1: and drink slung about him in other days. He brought
Speaker 1: the bottle to his lips and took a fiery drink
Speaker 1: from it, and I smelt the strong spirits that I
Speaker 1: saw flash into his face. Wolf said, he folding his
Speaker 1: arms again. Old or alex A going to tell you something.
Speaker 1: It was you as did for your shrewd sister again.
Speaker 1: My mind, with its former inconceivable rapidity, had exhausted the
Speaker 1: whole subject of the attack upon my sister, her illness
Speaker 1: and her death. Before his slow and hesitating speech had
Speaker 1: formed these words. It was you, villain, said I I
Speaker 1: tell you it was your doing. I tell you it
Speaker 1: was done through you. He retorted, catching up the gun
Speaker 1: and making a blow with the stalk at the vacant
Speaker 1: air between us. I come upon her from behind, as
Speaker 1: 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 them. It is
Speaker 1: impossible to overstate the vividness of these images. And yet
Speaker 1: 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 this second time, he rose from
Speaker 1: the bench on which he sat. I pushed the table aside.
Speaker 1: Then he took up the candle, and shading it with
Speaker 1: his murderous hands 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 opened,
Speaker 1: there a door closed, all the articles of furniture around,
Speaker 1: And why was old or lick there? I'll tell you
Speaker 1: something more, Wolf, You and her have pretty well hunted
Speaker 1: me out of this country, so far as getting an
Speaker 1: easy living in it goes. And I've took up with
Speaker 1: new companions and new masters. Some of them writes my
Speaker 1: letters when I once some wrote, do you mind? Writes
Speaker 1: my letters? Wolf? They writes fifty hands. They're not like
Speaker 1: sneaking you, as writes but one. I've a firm mind
Speaker 1: and a firm will to have your life. Since she
Speaker 1: was down here at your sister's burying. I hadn't seen
Speaker 1: a way to get you safe, and I've looked out
Speaker 1: of you to know your ins and outs. For says
Speaker 1: Old Lorlick to himself, somehow or another, I'll have him
Speaker 1: what when it looks for you, I find your uncle
Speaker 1: Provis eh mill pond bank, and Chink's basin, and the
Speaker 1: old green copper rope walk, also clear and plain Provis
Speaker 1: in his rooms, the signal whose use was over, Pretty Clara,
Speaker 1: the good motherly woman, Old Bill Barley on his back,
Speaker 1: all drifting by as on the swift stream of my life,
Speaker 1: fast running out to see you with a uncle too.
Speaker 1: Why I knowed you at Gargree's, when you was so
Speaker 1: small a wolf, that I could have took your weason
Speaker 1: betwixt this finger and thumb and chucked you away dead,
Speaker 1: as i'd thoughts of doin odd times. When I see
Speaker 1: you loitering amongst the pollards on a Sunday and you
Speaker 1: hadn't found no uncles, then no, not you. But when
Speaker 1: Old Orleck come for to hear that your uncle Provis
Speaker 1: had most like wore the leg iron what Old Orleck
Speaker 1: had picked up filed asunder on these marshes ever so
Speaker 1: many year ago, and what he kept by him till
Speaker 1: he dropped your sister with it like a bullock as
Speaker 1: he means to drop you. Hey, when he come for
Speaker 1: to hear that Hey, in his savage taunting, he flared
Speaker 1: the candle so close at me that I turned my
Speaker 1: face aside to save it from the flame. Ah, he cried,
Speaker 1: laughing after doing it again, the burnt child dreads the
Speaker 1: fire Old Orle like no, you was burnt. Old Orleck
Speaker 1: knowed you was smuggling your uncle provis Away. Old Orleck's
Speaker 1: a match for you, and knowed you'd come tonight. Now
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something more, wolf, and this ends it.
Speaker 1: There's them that's as good a match for your uncle
Speaker 1: Provis as Old Orleck has been for you. Let him
Speaker 1: wear them when he's lost his nevy. Let him wear
Speaker 1: them when no man can't find a rag of his
Speaker 1: dear relations clothes, nor yet a bone of his body.
Speaker 1: There's them that can't and that won't have magwitch. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know the name alive in the same land with them,
Speaker 1: and that's had such sure information of him when he
Speaker 1: was alive in another land as that he couldn't and
Speaker 1: shouldn't leave it unbeknown and put them in danger. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it's them that writes fifty hands, and that's not like
Speaker 1: sneaking you, as writes, but one where compysin magwitch and
Speaker 1: the gallows. He flared the candle at me again, smoking
Speaker 1: my face and hair, and for an instant blinding me,
Speaker 1: and turned his powerful back as he replaced the light
Speaker 1: on the table. I had thought a prayer, and had
Speaker 1: been with Joe and Biddy and Herbert before he turned
Speaker 1: towards me again. There was a clear space of a
Speaker 1: few feet between the table and the opposite wall. Within
Speaker 1: this space he now slouched backwards and forwards. His great
Speaker 1: strength seemed to sit stronger upon him than ever before.
Speaker 1: As he did this, with his hands hanging loose and
Speaker 1: heavy at his sides, and with his eyes scowling at me,
Speaker 1: I had no grain of hope left wild as my
Speaker 1: inward hurry was, and wonderful the force of the pictures
Speaker 1: that rushed by me instead of thoughts. I could yet
Speaker 1: clearly understand that unless he had resolved that I was
Speaker 1: within a few moments of surely perishing out of all
Speaker 1: human knowledge, he would never have told me what he
Speaker 1: had told of a sudden he stopped, took the cork
Speaker 1: out of his bottle, and tossed it away. Light as
Speaker 1: it was, I heard it fall like a plummet. He swallowed, slowly,
Speaker 1: tilting up the bottle by little and little, and now
Speaker 1: he looked at me no more. The last few drops
Speaker 1: of liquor he poured into the palm of his hand
Speaker 1: and licked up. Then, with a sudden hurry of violence,
Speaker 1: and swearing horribly, he threw the bottle from him and stooped,
Speaker 1: and I saw in his hand a stone hammer with
Speaker 1: a long, heavy handle. The resolution I had made did
Speaker 1: not desert me, for without uttering one vain word of
Speaker 1: appeal to him, I shouted out with all my might
Speaker 1: and struggled with all my might. It was only my
Speaker 1: head and my legs that I could move, But to
Speaker 1: that extent I struggled with all the force until then
Speaker 1: unknown that was within me. In the same instant, I
Speaker 1: heard responsive shouts, saw figures, and a gleam of light
Speaker 1: might dashing at the door, heard voices and tumult, and
Speaker 1: saw orlick emerge from a struggle of men, as if
Speaker 1: it were tumbling water, clear the table at a leap,
Speaker 1: and fly out into the night. After a blank I
Speaker 1: found that I was lying unbound on the floor in
Speaker 1: the same place, with my hat on someone's knee. My
Speaker 1: eyes were fixed on the ladder against the wall. When
Speaker 1: I came to myself had opened on it before my
Speaker 1: mind saw it, And thus, as I recovered consciousness, I
Speaker 1: knew that I was in the place where I had
Speaker 1: lost it. Too indifferent at first even to look round
Speaker 1: and ascertain who supported me. I was lying looking at
Speaker 1: the ladder when there came between me and it a face,
Speaker 1: the face of Trab's boy. I think he's all right,
Speaker 1: said Trab's Boy in a sober voice. But ain't he
Speaker 1: just pale? Though at these words, the face of him
Speaker 1: who supported me looked over into mine, and I saw
Speaker 1: my supporter to be Herbert Great Heaven, softly, said Herbert gently,
Speaker 1: Handle don't be too eager, and our old comrade star Top,
Speaker 1: I cried, as he too bent over me. Remember what
Speaker 1: he is going to assist us in, said Herbert, and
Speaker 1: be calm. The illusion made me spring up, though I
Speaker 1: dropped again from the pain in my arm. The time
Speaker 1: has not gone by, Herbert, has it? What night is
Speaker 1: to night? How long have I been here? For? I
Speaker 1: had a strange and strong misgiving that I have been
Speaker 1: 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 star Top, who volunteered his
Speaker 1: company to make inquiry when the next coach went down.
Speaker 1: Finding that the afternoon coach was gone, and finding that
Speaker 1: his uneasiness grew into positive alarm as obstacles came in
Speaker 1: his way, he resolved to follow in a post chaise.
Speaker 1: So he and Startop arrived at the Blue Boar fully
Speaker 1: expecting there to find me or tidings of me, but
Speaker 1: finding neither, went on to Miss Havishams, where they lost me.
Speaker 1: Hereupon they went back to the hotel, doubtless at about
Speaker 1: the time when I was hearing the popular local version
Speaker 1: of my own story, to refresh themselves and get some
Speaker 1: one to guide them out upon the marshes. Among the
Speaker 1: loungers under the Boer's archway happened to be TRAbs Boy,
Speaker 1: true to his ancient habit of happening to be everywhere
Speaker 1: where he had no business. And Trab's Boy had seen
Speaker 1: me passing from Miss Havishams in the direction of my
Speaker 1: dining place. Thus TRAbs Boy became their guide, and with
Speaker 1: him they went out to the Sluice house, though by
Speaker 1: the town way to the marshes, which I had avoided.
Speaker 1: Now as they went along, Herbert reflected that I might,
Speaker 1: after all, had been brought there on some genuine and
Speaker 1: serviceable errand, tending to provis his safety, and bethinking himself
Speaker 1: that in that case interruption must be mischievous, left his
Speaker 1: guide and startop on the edge of the quarry, and
Speaker 1: went on by himself and stole round the house two
Speaker 1: or three times, endeavoring to ascertain whether all was right within,
Speaker 1: as he could hear nothing but indistinct sounds of one deep,
Speaker 1: rough voice. This was while my mind was so busy.
Speaker 1: He even at last began to doubt whether I was there,
Speaker 1: when suddenly I cried out loudly, and he answered the
Speaker 1: cries and rushed in, closely followed by the other two.
Speaker 1: When I told Herbert what had passed within the house,
Speaker 1: he was for our immediately going before a magistrate in
Speaker 1: the town, late at night as it was, and getting
Speaker 1: out a warrant. But I had already considered that such
Speaker 1: a course, by detaining us there or binding us to
Speaker 1: come back, might be fatal to provis There was no
Speaker 1: gainsaying this difficulty, and we relinquished all thoughts of pursuing
Speaker 1: orlick at that time. For the present, Under the circumstances,
Speaker 1: we deemed it prudent to make rather light of the
Speaker 1: matter to Trab's boy, who I am convinced would have
Speaker 1: been much affected by disappointment if he had known that
Speaker 1: his intervention saved me from the lime kiln. Not that
Speaker 1: traps boy was of a malignant nature, but that he
Speaker 1: had too much spare of vivacity, and that it was
Speaker 1: in his constitution to want variety and excitement at anybody's expense.
Speaker 1: When we parted, I presented him with two guineas which
Speaker 1: seemed to meet his views, and told him that I
Speaker 1: was sorry ever to have had an ill opinion of him,
Speaker 1: which made no impression on him at all. Wednesday, being
Speaker 1: so close upon us, we determined to go back to
Speaker 1: London that night three in the post Chaise the rather
Speaker 1: as we should then be clear away before the Knight's
Speaker 1: adventure begin again to be talked of. Herbert got a
Speaker 1: large bottle of stuff from my arm, and by dint
Speaker 1: of having this stuff dropped over it all the night through,
Speaker 1: I was just able to bear its pain on the journey.
Speaker 1: It was daylight when we reached the Temple, and I
Speaker 1: went 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 myself,
Speaker 1: 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