el. In the grip of these great arms I was
helpless, and in a trice was standing dumb as a lamp-post; while
Laputa, his left arm round both of mine, and his right hand over the
schimmel's eyes, strained his ears like a sable antelope who has
scented danger.

There was never a more brutal gagging. The rope crushed my nose and
drove my lips down on my teeth, besides gripping my throat so that I
could scarcely breathe. The pain was so great that I became sick, and
would have fallen but for Laputa. Happily I managed to get my teeth
apart, so that one coil slipped between, and eased the pain of the
jaws. But the rest was bad enough to make me bite frantically on the
tow, and I think in a little my sharp front teeth would have severed
it. All this discomfort prevented me seeing what happened. The wood,
as I have said, was thin, and through the screen of leaves I had a
confused impression of men and horses passing interminably. There can
only have been a score at the most; but the moments drag if a cord is
gripping your throat. When Laputa at length untied me, I had another
fit of nausea, and leaned helplessly against a tree.

Laputa listened till the sound of the horses had died away; then
silently we stole to the edge of the road, across, and into the thicker
evergreen bush on the far side. At a pace which forced me to run hard,
we climbed a steepish slope, till ahead of us we saw the bald green
crown of the meadowlands. I noticed that his face had grown dark and
sullen again. He was in an enemy's country, and had the air of the
hunted instead of the hunter. When I stopped he glowered at me, and
once, when I was all but overcome with fatigue, he lifted his hand in a
threat. Had he carried a sjambok, it would have fallen on my back.

If he was nervous, so was I. The fact that I was out of the Kaffir
country and in the land of my own folk was a kind of qualified liberty.
At any moment, I felt, Providence might intervene to set me free. It
was in the bond that Laputa should shoot me if we were attacked; but a
pistol might miss. As far as my shaken wits would let me, I began to
forecast the future. Once he got the jewels my side of the bargain was
complete. He had promised me my life, but there had been nothing said
about my liberty; and I felt assured that Laputa would never allow one
who had seen so much to get off to Arcoll with his tidings. But back
to that unhallowed kraal I was resolved I would not go. H