The Strangers Shouted Several Times More, Then Rode By - There Seemed To
Be A Dozen Of The Horses - And I Heard Nothing More.
I struggled, but could not free myself from my bonds.
I tried to speak,
but the gag was effective; I could not make a sound. I listened for my
wife's voice and my child's - listened long and intently, but no sound
came from the other end of the room where their bed was. This silence
became more and more awful, more and more ominous, every moment. Could
you have endured an hour of it, do you think? Pity me, then, who had to
endure three. Three hours - ? it was three ages! Whenever the clock
struck, it seemed as if years had gone by since I had heard it last.
All this time I was struggling in my bonds; and at last, about dawn, I
got myself free, and rose up and stretched my stiff limbs. I was able
to distinguish details pretty well. The floor was littered with things
thrown there by the robbers during their search for my savings. The
first object that caught my particular attention was a document of mine
which I had seen the rougher of the two ruffians glance at and then cast
away. It had blood on it! I staggered to the other end of the room. Oh,
poor unoffending, helpless ones, there they lay, their troubles ended,
mine begun!
Did I appeal to the law - I? Does it quench the pauper's thirst if the
King drink for him?
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