"
"And you remember that there was a chase after two convicts, and
that we joined in it, and that Gargery took you on his back, and
that I took the lead, and you kept up with me as well as you could?"
"I remember it all very well." Better than he thought,--except the
last clause.
"And you remember that we came up with the two in a ditch, and that
there was a scuffle between them, and that one of them had been
severely handled and much mauled about the face by the other?"
"I see it all before me."
"And that the soldiers lighted torches, and put the two in the
centre, and that we went on to see the last of them, over the black
marshes, with the torchlight shining on their faces,--I am
particular about that,--with the torchlight shining on their faces,
when there was an outer ring of dark night all about us?"
"Yes," said I. "I remember all that."
"Then, Mr. Pip, one of those two prisoners sat behind you tonight. I
saw him over your shoulder."
"Steady!" I thought. I asked him then, "Which of the two do you
suppose you saw?"
"The one who had been mauled," he answered readily, "and I'll swear
I saw him! The more I think of him, the more certain I am of him."
"This is very curious!" said I, with the best assumption I could
put on of its being nothing more to me.
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