hey did so than was strictly the truth.

Jeremy, meanwhile, was occupied now with the thought as to what he would
do did the Captain really want him to go away with him. He discussed it
with himself, but he did not doubt what he would do; he would go. And he
would go, he knew, with fear and dread, and with a longing to stay, and
be warm in the schoolroom, and have jam for tea, and half an hour before
bedtime downstairs, and Yorkshire pudding on Sundays. But the Captain
could make him do anything... Yes, the Captain could make him do
anything...

His afternoon walks now were prolonged agonies. He would turn his head
at every moment, would stare into dark corners, would start at the sound
of steps. His sleep now was broken with horrid dreams, and he would jump
up and cry out; and one night he actually dreamt of his dead-white road
and the sounds that came up from below the hill, the bell and the sea,
and the distant rattle of the little carts.

Then the Captain drew near to the very house itself. He haunted Orange
Street, could be seen lounging against a lamp-post opposite the High
School, looked once into the very garden of the Coles, Jeremy watching
him with beating heart from the schoolroom window. It was incredible
to Jeremy that no one else of the house perceived him; but no one ever
mentioned him, and this made it appear all the more a dream, as though
the Captain were invisible to everyone save himself. He began to hate
him even more than he feared him, and yet with that hatred the pleasure
and excitement remained. I remember how, years ago in Polchester, when
I could not have been more than six years old, I myself was haunted
with exactly that same mixture of pleasure and horror by the figure of
a hunch-backed pedlar who used to come to our town. Many years after I
heard that he had been hung for the murder of some wretched woman who
had accompanied him on some of his journeys. I was not surprised; but
when I heard the story I felt then again the old thrill of mingled
pleasure and fear.

One windy afternoon, near dusk, when they were returning from their
walk, Jeremy suddenly heard the voice in his ear:

"I may be coming to visit yer one o' these nights. Keep yer eyes open
and yer tongue quiet if I do."

Jeremy saw the figures of Miss Jones and his sisters pass round the
corner of the road.

"What for?" he gasped.

The Captain's figure seemed to swell gigantic against the white light of
the fading sky. T