"Why, Lord love my eyes!" he exclaimed, like one greatly amazed, "Lord
love my eyes and limbs!" Then, all at once, he took my hand, gripping
it very hard, and held it thus a long moment, loosing it as suddenly;
and so I turned and, lifting the blanket, went out into the dreary
desolation of the wood.
On the misery of this night's wanderings I will not dwell; let it
suffice to say that, sick and reeling with weariness and lack of
sleep, I came at sunrise upon a barn into which I crept and here, with
no better couch than a pile of hay, I was thankful to stretch my
aching body, and so fell into a deep and dreamless slumber.
CHAPTER XI
WHICH PROVES BEYOND ALL ARGUMENT THAT CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN
I awoke very stiff and sore and full of a black, oppressive melancholy
despite the bright sunshine that poured in at every crack and crevice
of the old barn. To this depression was added sudden dread as I
recalled the incidents of last night and how (albeit unwittingly) I
had favoured the escape of a desperate outlaw, thus placing myself in
danger of arrest and possible imprisonment.
At this horrid thought I started up in great perturbation until
observing thus my clumsy shoes, thick stockings and other garments of
my rustical disguise, my apprehensions abated somewhat and I sat down
again to ponder gloomily on my future course.
And now leapt Memory to tempt me, for I must needs think of my aunt
who, viewed from my present deep of misery and loneliness, seemed like
some goddess very high and remote.
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