And
so strong was the impression upon him that, when he woke, he lay
wondering who had loosed his bonds, and could not make out how he had
got back into the mouth of the tunnel.
It was still quite dark. He was stiff with lying in that cramped place.
He was strongly tempted to climb out and see how matters lay. For he
might be able to find out in the dark, whereas daylight would make him
prisoner again.
He wanted eggs, too. Nance's provision had served him well all day, but
if he had to spend another day there something more would be welcome.
But then it struck him that if he went up in the dark he might never be
able to find his way back again. The cleft under the slab was difficult
to hit upon even in daylight. There were scores of just similar ragged
black holes among the tumbled rocks of the great wall.
As he lay pondering it all, the grim idea came into his head of dragging
the dead man through the tunnel, and hoisting him up outside, and
leaving him propped up among the boulders where they would be sure to
find him.
He knew how arrantly superstitious they were, most of them.
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