While I yet stared at this, I was conscious that the man had
risen, and now stood at my elbow; also, that in one hand his
carried a short, heavy stick. He stood very still, and with bent
head, apparently absorbed in the printed words before him, but
more than once I saw his eyes gleam in the shadow of his hat-brim,
as they turned to scan me furtively up and down. Yet he did not
speak or move, and there was something threatening, I thought, in
his immobility. Wherefore I, in turn, watched him narrowly from
the corner of my eye, and thus it chanced that our glances met.
"You seem thoughtful?" said I.
"Ah!--I be that."
"And what might you be thinking?"
"Why--since you ax me, I was thinkin' as your eye was mighty
sharp and piercin'."
"Ah!" said I; "and what more?"
"That your coat was tore at the shoulder."
"So it is," I nodded; "well?"
"You likewise wears buckled breeches, and gray worsted
stockings."
"You are a very observant man!" said I.
"Though, to be sure," said he, shaking his head, "I don't see no
'andcuffs."
"That is because they are hidden under my sleeves."
"A-h-h!" said he, and I saw the stick quiver in his grip.
"As I said before, you are a very observant man!" said I, watching
the stick.
"Well, I've got eyes, and can see as much as most folk," he
retorted, and here the stick quivered again.
"Yes," I nodded; "you also possess legs, and can probably walk
fast?"
"Ah!--and run, too, if need be," he added significantly.
"Then suppose you start."
"Start where?"
"Anywhere, so long as you do start."
"Not wi'out you, my buck! I've took a powerful fancy to you, and
that there five hundred pounds"--here his left hand shot out and
grasped my collar--"so s'posin' you come along o' me. And no
tricks, mind--no tricks, or--ah!--would ye?" The heavy stick
whirled up, but, quick as he, I had caught his wrist, and now
presented my pistol full in his face.
"Drop that stick!" said I, pressing the muzzle of the weapon
lightly against his forehead as I spoke. At the touch of the
cold steel his body suddenly stiffened and grew rigid, his eyes
opened in a horrified stare, and the stick clattered down on the
road.