s to hear if they were coming. I say,
ought one to feel so frightened as I did then?"

"Most people do," said Gunson quietly.

"And 'nuff to make 'em," said the master.

"Well, I kept on working away at it for what seemed to be hours,"
continued Esau, "but all I could do was to get one end of the rag out
between my teeth, and I couldn't work it any further, but lay there with
my jaws aching, and feeling as if I hadn't got any hands or feet,
because they'd tied 'em so tight.

"It was very horrid, for all the time as I lay there I was expecting
them to come back, and I thought that if they did, and found me trying
to get the things off, they'd half kill me. And didn't I wish you'd
been there to help me, and then was sorry I wished it, for I shouldn't
have liked anybody to have been in such a fix.

"I got so faint and dizzy at last that things began to go up and down,
and round and round, and for ever so long I lay there thinking I was
aboard ship again in the storm, just like when I was off my head at home
with the fever I had when I was a little chap. But at last I came to
again, and lay on my side wondering how I could get that horrible
choking thing out of my mouth, for I couldn't move it even now when I
tried again, only hold a great piece between my teeth.

"The place was very dark, only light came in here and there through
cracks and holes where the knots had been knocked out of some of the
boards; and as I thought I said to myself, if I could get that thing out
I might call for help; but directly after I felt that I dared not, for
it would p'r'aps bring some of those chaps back.

"All at once, where the light came through a hole, I saw something that
made my heart jump, and I wondered I had not seen it before. It was a
hook fastened up against one of the joists, with some bits of rope
hanging upon it. It was a sharp kind of thing, like the meat-hooks you
see nailed up against the sides of a butcher's shop; and I began rolling
myself over the rustling leaves, over and over, till I was up against
the side, and then it was a long time before I could get up on my knees
and look up at the hook.

"But I couldn't reach it, and I had to try and get on to my feet. It
took a long time, and I went down twice before I was standing, and even
then I went down again; for though I did stand up, I didn't know I had
any feet, for all the feeling was gone. Then all at once down I went
sidewise, and lay there as misera