Page 191 - A Jacobite Exile

his face. The man opened his eyes, and tried to move.

"You are too tightly bound to move, Pauloff," he said. "I could have killed
you if I had chosen, but I did not wish to. You have not been unkind to me,

and I owe you no grudge; but tell your rascally employer that I will be even
with him, someday, for the evil he has done me."

"You might as well have killed me," the man said, "for he will do so when
he finds I let you escape."

"Then my advice to you is, be beforehand with him. You are as strong a
man as he is, and if I were in your place, and a man who meant to kill me

came into a lonely hut like this, I would take precious good care that he had
no chance of carrying out his intentions."

Charlie then took two loaves of black bread and a portion of goat's flesh
from the cupboard; found a bottle about a quarter full of coarse spirits,

filled it up with water and put it in his pocket, and then, after taking
possession of the long knife his captive wore in his belt, went out of the hut

and closed the door behind him.

He had purposely moved slowly about the hut, as he made these

preparations, in order that the Jew should believe that he was still weak;
but, indeed, the effort of dragging the man into the hut had severely taxed

his strength, and he found that he was much weaker than he had supposed.

The hut stood in a very small clearing, and Charlie had no difficulty in

seeing the track by which the cart had come, for the marks of the wheels
were still visible in the soft soil. He followed this until, after about two

miles' walking, he came to the edge of the wood. Then he retraced his steps
for a quarter of a mile, turned off, and with some difficulty made his way
into a patch of thick undergrowth, where, after first cutting a formidable

cudgel, he lay down, completely exhausted.

Late in the afternoon he was aroused from a doze by the sound of footsteps,
and, looking through the screen of leaves, he saw his late jailers hurrying