e me, you'll never
lave this house, nor go out of that door a livin' woman, unless you
tell me all you know about that Tobaccy-Box. Now you know my mind an' my
coorse--act as you like now."

"Ha, ha, ha! Do you think to frighten me?" she asked, laughing
derisively. "Me!--oh, how much you're mistaken, if you think so! Not
that I don't believe you to be dangerous, an' a man that one ought to
fear; but I have no fear of you."

"Answer me quickly," he replied--and as he spoke, he seized the very
same knife from which she had so narrowly escaped in her conflict with
Sarah--"answer me, I say; an' mark, I have no reason to wish you alive."

And as he spoke, the glare in his eyes flashed and became fearful.

"Ah," said she, "there's your daughter's look an' the same knife, too,
that was near doin' for me wanst. Well, don't think that it's fear makes
me say what I'm goin' to say; but that's the same knife; an' besides
I dhramed last night that I was dressed in a black cloak--an' a black
cloak, they say, is death! Ay, death--an' I know I'm not fit to die, or
to meet judgment, an' you know that too. Now, then, tell me what it is
you want wid the Box."

[Illustration: PAGE 847-- I'll tell you nothing about it]

"No," he replied, sternly and imperatively, "I'll tell you nothing about
it; but get it at wanst, before my passion rises higher and deadlier."

"Well, then, mark me, I'm not afeard of you--but I have the box."

"An' how did you come by it?" he asked.

"Sarah was lookin' for a cobweb to stop the blood where she cut me in
our fight the other day, an' it came tumblin' out of a cranny in the
wall."

"An' where is it now?"

"I'll get it for you," she replied; "but you must let me out first."

"Why so?"

"Because it's not in the house."

"An' where is it? Don't think you'll escape me."

"It's in the thatch o' the roof."

The Prophet deliberately opened the door, and catching her by the
shoulder, held her prisoner, as it were, until she should make her words
good. The roof was but low, and she knew the spot too well to make any
mistake about it.

"Here," said she, "is the cross I scraped on the stone undher the
place."

She put up her hand as she spoke, and searched the spot--but in vain.
There certainly was the cross as she had marked it, and there was the
slight excavation under the thatch where it had been; but as for the box
itself, all search for it was fruitless--it had disappeared.

CHAPTE