safety
of all. In fact, their courage was so reduced by the untoward episode
that he more than suspected they intended to flee the region, and he was
disposed to give the fact that he was left cooped up here under lock and
key no such humane interpretation as the intruder had placed upon it.
They had left him to starve, if not discovered, while they sought to
compass a safe distance. At all events, he was so broken in mind and body
that his story was more than likely to be discredited, unless their own
clumsy denials and guilty faces were in evidence to confirm its truth.

Now his garrulity had vanished; he licked his thin lips ever and anon,
and looked up over the folds of the red blanket drawn to the chin with a
bright, inscrutable eye and said nothing. His weakness was so great that
the policy of lying silent and supine, rather than exert his failing
powers, was commended by his inclination as well as his prudence.

Though it was in vain that the spy plied him with question and
suggestion, one phrase was like a galvanic current to this inert atrophy
of muscle and mind. "Look here, old man," the intruder said at length,
baffled and in despair, "you mark my words!" The brawny form had come
close in the shadow and towered over the recumbent and helpless creature,
speaking impressively through his set teeth. "You mark my words: your
pals are going to do you."

A quiver of patent apprehension ran over the dimly descried face, and
under the blanket the limbs writhed feebly; but Clenk's resolution held
firm, and with a curse, balked and lowering, the man stepped out at the
place where he had effected his entrance at the moment when his scheme
might have borne fruit.

For old Clenk had struggled up in bed. This threat was true. He had
vaguely suspected the fact, but in the words of another his fear had an
added urgency. He had betrayed his accomplices, he had betrayed himself.
Doubtless it was a race between them as to who could soonest seize the
opportunity to turn State's evidence.

And why should he fear the law more than another? As matters stood, he
would be left to bear the brunt of its vengeance, while the active
perpetrator of the deed escaped, and the accessories sought shelter
beneath the aegis of the law itself.

He was not long in reasoning it out. The strength of his resolution
imparted a fictitious vigor to his muscles. While unaided he could never
have stirred the heavy board, his efforts made it give,