over the amount of the captain's score from the sailor's
bag into the one that I was holding.

It was a long, difficult business, for the coins were of all countries
and sizes--doubloons, and louis-d'ors, and guineas, and pieces of eight,
and I know not what besides, all shaken together at random. The guineas,
too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother
knew how to make her count.

When we were about half-way through I suddenly put my hand upon her arm;
for I had heard in the silent, frosty air, a sound that brought my heart
into my mouth--the tap-tapping of the blind man's stick upon the frozen
road. It drew nearer and nearer, while we sat holding our breath. Then it
struck sharp on the inn-door, and then we could hear the handle being
turned, and the bolt rattling as the wretched being tried to enter; and
then there was a long time of silence both within and without. At last
the tapping recommenced, and, to our indescribable joy and gratitude,
died slowly away again until it ceased to be heard.

"Mother," said I, "take the whole and let's be going;" for I was sure the
bolted door must have seemed suspicious, and would bring the whole
hornets' nest about our ears; though how thankful I was that I had bolted
it, none could tell who had never met that terrible blind man.

But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a
fraction more than was due to her, and was obstinately unwilling to be
content with less. It was not yet seven, she said, by a long way; she
knew her rights and she would have them; and she was still arguing with
me, when a little low whistle sounded a good way off upon the hill. That
was enough, and more than enough, for both of us.

"I'll take what I have," she said, jumping to her feet.

"And I'll take this to square the count," said I, picking up the oilskin
packet.

Next moment we were both groping down-stairs, leaving the candle by the
empty chest; and the next we had opened the door and were in full
retreat. We had not started a moment too soon. The fog was rapidly
dispersing; already the moon shone quite clear on the high ground on
either side; and it was only in the exact bottom of the dell and round
the tavern-door that a thin veil still hung unbroken to conceal the first
steps of our escape. Far less than half-way to the hamlet, very little
beyond the bottom of the hill, we must come forth into the moonlight. Nor
was this all, for the sound o