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1It was a dark night, though the full moon rose as I left the enclosed lands, and passed out upon the marshes. Beyond
2their dark line there was a ribbon of clear sky, hardly broad enough to hold the red large moon. In a few minutes she
3had ascended out of that clear field, in among the piled mountains of cloud. There was a melancholy wind, and the
4marshes were very dismal. A stranger would have found them insupportable, and even to me they were so oppressive that I
5hesitated, half inclined to go back. But I knew them well, and could have found my way on a far darker night, and had no
6excuse for returning, being there. So, having come there against my inclination, I went on against it. The direction
7that I took was not that in which my old home lay, nor that in which we had pursued the convicts. My back was turned
8towards the distant Hulks as I walked on, and, though I could see the old lights away on the spits of sand, I saw them
9over my shoulder. I knew the limekiln as well as I knew the old Battery, but they were miles apart; so that, if a light
10had been burning at each point that night, there would have been a long strip of the blank horizon between the two
11bright specks. At first, I had to shut some gates after me, and now and then to stand still while the cattle that were
12lying in the banked-up pathway arose and blundered down among the grass and reeds. But after a little while I seemed to
13have the whole flats to myself. It was another half-hour before I drew near to the kiln. The lime was burning with a
14sluggish stifling smell, but the fires were made up and left, and no workmen were visible. Hard by was a small
15stone-quarry. It lay directly in my way, and had been worked that day, as I saw by the tools and barrows that were lying
16about. Coming up again to the marsh level out of this excavation,--for the rude path lay through it,--I saw a light in
17the old sluice-house. I quickened my pace, and knocked at the door with my hand. Waiting for some reply, I looked about
18me, noticing how the sluice was abandoned and broken, and how the house--of wood with a tiled roof--would not be proof
19against the weather much longer, if it were so even now, and how the mud and ooze were coated with lime, and how the
20choking vapour of the kiln crept in a ghostly way towards me. Still there was no answer, and I knocked again. No answer
21still, and I tried the latch. It rose under my hand, and the door yielded. Looking in, I saw a lighted candle on a
22table, a bench, and a mattress on a truckle bedstead. As there was a loft above, I called, "Is there any one here?" but
23no voice answered. Then I looked at my watch, and, finding that it was past nine, called again, "Is there any one here?"
24There being still no answer, I went out at the door, irresolute what to do. It was beginning to rain fast. Seeing
25nothing save what I had seen already, I turned back into the house, and stood just within the shelter of the doorway,
26looking out into the night. While I was considering that some one must have been there lately and must soon be coming
27back, or the candle would not be burning, it came into my head to look if the wick were long. I turned round to do so,
28and had taken up the candle in my hand, when it was extinguished by some violent shock; and the next thing I
29comprehended was, that I had been caught in a strong running noose, thrown over my head from behind. "Now," said a
30suppressed voice with an oath, "I've got you!" "What is this?" I cried, struggling. "Who is it? Help, help, help!" Not
31only were my arms pulled close to my sides, but the pressure on my bad arm caused me exquisite pain. Sometimes, a strong
32man's hand, sometimes a strong man's breast, was set against my mouth to deaden my cries, and with a hot breath always
33close to me, I struggled ineffectually in the dark, while I was fastened tight to the wall. "And now," said the
34suppressed voice with another oath, "call out again, and I'll make short work of you!" Faint and sick with the pain of
35my injured arm, bewildered by the surprise, and yet conscious how easily this threat could be put in execution, I
36desisted, and tried to ease my arm were it ever so little. But, it was bound too tight for that. I felt as if, having
37been burnt before, it were now being boiled. The sudden exclusion of the night, and the substitution of black darkness
38in its place, warned me that the man had closed a shutter. After groping about for a little, he found the flint and
39steel he wanted, and began to strike a light. I strained my sight upon the sparks that fell among the tinder, and upon
40which he breathed and breathed, match in hand, but I could only see his lips, and the blue point of the match; even
41those but fitfully. The tinder was damp,--no wonder there,--and one after another the sparks died out. The man was in no
42hurry, and struck again with the flint and steel. As the sparks fell thick and bright about him, I could see his hands,
43and touches of his face, and could make out that he was seated and bending over the table; but nothing more. Presently I
44saw his blue lips again, breathing on the tinder, and then a flare of light flashed up, and showed me Orlick. Whom I had
45looked for, I don't know. I had not looked for him. Seeing him, I felt that I was in a dangerous strait indeed, and I
46kept my eyes upon him. He lighted the candle from the flaring match with great deliberation, and dropped the match, and
47trod it out. Then he put the candle away from him on the table, so that he could see me, and sat with his arms folded on
48the table and looked at me. I made out that I was fastened to a stout perpendicular ladder a few inches from the
49wall,--a fixture there,--the means of ascent to the loft above. "Now," said he, when we had surveyed one another for
50some time, "I've got you." "Unbind me. Let me go!" "Ah!" he returned, "I'll let you go. I'll let you go to the moon,
51I'll let you go to the stars. All in good time." "Why have you lured me here?" "Don't you know?" said he, with a deadly
52look. "Why have you set upon me in the dark?" "Because I mean to do it all myself. One keeps a secret better than two. O
53you enemy, you enemy!" His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking
54his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble. As I watched him in silence, he put his
55hand into the corner at his side, and took up a gun with a brass-bound stock. "Do you know this?" said he, making as if
56he would take aim at me. "Do you know where you saw it afore? Speak, wolf!" "Yes," I answered. [Illustration] "You cost
57me that place. You did. Speak!" "What else could I do?" "You did that, and that would be enough, without more. How dared
58you to come betwixt me and a young woman I liked?" "When did I?" "When didn't you? It was you as always give Old Orlick
59a bad name to her." "You gave it to yourself; you gained it for yourself. I could have done you no harm, if you had done
60yourself none." "You're a liar. And you'll take any pains, and spend any money, to drive me out of this country, will
61you?" said he, repeating my words to Biddy in the last interview I had with her. "Now, I'll tell you a piece of
62information. It was never so well worth your while to get me out of this country as it is to-night. Ah! If it was all
63your money twenty times told, to the last brass farden!" As he shook his heavy hand at me, with his mouth snarling like
64a tiger's, I felt that it was true. "What are you going to do to me?"
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