192 A JACOBITE EXILE

it in his pocket, and then, after taking possession of the
long knife his captive wore in his belt, went out of the hut
and closed the door behind him. He had purposely moved
slowly about the hut as he made these preparations, in order
that the Jew should believe that he was still weak; but,
indeed, the effort of dragging the man into the hut had
severely taxed his strength, and he found that he was much
weaker than he had supposed.

The hut stood in a very small clearing, and Charlie had
no difficulty in seeing the track by which the cart had
come, for the marks of the wheels were still visible in the
soft soil. He followed this, until after about two miles’
walking he came to the edge of the wood. Then he
retraced his steps for a quarter of a mile, turned off, and
with some difficulty made his way into a patch of thick
undergrowth, where, after first cutting a formidable cudgel,
he lay down, completely exhausted. Late in the afternoon
he was aroused from a doze by the sound of footsteps, and
looking through the screen of leaves he saw his late jailers
hurrying along the path. The charcoal-burner carried a
heavy axe, while the Jew, whose head was bound up with a
cloth, had a long knife in his girdle. They went as far as
the end of the forest, and then retraced their steps slowly.
They were talking loudly, and Charlie could gather from
the few words he understood, and by their gestures, some-
thing of the purport of their conversation.

“T told you it was of no use your coming on as far as
this,” the Jew said; ‘why, he was hardly strong enough to
walk.”

“He managed to knock you down, and afterwards to drag
you into the house,” the other said.

“Tt does not require much strength to knock a man down
with a heavy club when he is not expecting it, Conrad.
He certainly did drag me in, but he was obliged to sit down
afterwards, and I watched him out of one eye as he was