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stood there and uttered nought。 He sounded the well of his
courage; and it was dry。 He groped in his treasury of words;
and it was vacant。 A devil of dumbness had him by the
throat; the devil of terror babbled in his ears; and
suddenly; without a word uttered; with no conscious purpose
formed in his will; John whipped about; tumbled over the
roadside wall; and began running for his life across the
fallows。
He had not gone far; he was not past the midst of the first
afield; when his whole brain thundered within him; 'Fool!
You have your watch!' The shock stopped him; and he faced
once more toward the cab。 The driver was leaning over the
wall; brandishing his whip; his face empurpled; roaring like
a bull。 And John saw (or thought) that he had lost the
chance。 No watch would pacify the man's resentment now; he
would cry for vengeance also。 John would be had under the
eye of the police; his tale would be unfolded; his secret
plumbed; his destiny would close on him at last; and for
ever。
He uttered a deep sigh; and just as the cabman; taking heart
of grace; was beginning at last to scale the wall; his
defaulting customer fell again to running; and disappeared
into the further fields。
CHAPTER VIII … SINGULAR INSTANCE OF THE UTILITY OF PASS…KEYS
WHERE he ran at first; John never very clearly knew; nor yet
how long a time elapsed ere he found himself in the by…road
near the lodge of Ravelston; propped against the wall; his
lungs heaving like bellows; his legs leaden…heavy; his mind
possessed by one sole desire … to lie down and be unseen。 He
remembered the thick coverts round the quarry…hole pond; an
untrodden corner of the world where he might surely find
concealment till the night should fall。 Thither he passed
down the lane; and when he came there; behold! he had
forgotten the frost; and the pond was alive with young people
skating; and the pond…side coverts were thick with lookers…
on。 He looked on a while himself。 There was one tall;
graceful maiden; skating hand in hand with a youth; on whom
she bestowed her bright eyes perhaps too patently; and it was
strange with what anger John beheld her。 He could have
broken forth in curses; he could have stood there; like a
mortified tramp; and shaken his fist and vented his gall upon
her by the hour … or so he thought; and the next moment his
heart bled for the girl。 'Poor creature; it's little she
knows!' he sighed。 'Let her enjoy herself while she can!'
But was it possible; when Flora used to smile at him on the
Braid ponds; she could have looked so fulsome to a sick…
hearted bystander?
The thought of one quarry; in his frozen wits; suggested
another; and he plodded off toward Craigleith。 A wind had
sprung up out of the north…west; it was cruel keen; it dried
him like a fire; and racked his finger…joints。 It brought
clouds; too; pale; swift; hurrying clouds; that blotted
heaven and shed gloom upon the earth。 He scrambled up among
the hazelled rubbish heaps that surround the caldron of the
quarry; and lay flat upon the stones。 The wind searched
close along the earth; the stones were cutting and icy; the
bare hazels wailed about him; and soon the air of the
afternoon began to be vocal with those strange and dismal
harpings that herald snow。 Pain and misery turned in John's
limbs to a harrowing impatience and blind desire of change;
now he would roll in his harsh lair; and when the flints
abraded him; was almost pleased; now he would crawl to the
edge of the huge pit and look dizzily down。 He saw the
spiral of the descending roadway; the steep crags; the
clinging bushes; the peppering of snow…wreaths; and far down
in the bottom; the diminished crane。 Here; no doubt; was a
way to end it。 But it somehow did not take his fancy。
And suddenly he was aware that he was hungry; ay; even
through the tortures of the cold; even through the frosts of
despair; a gross; desperate longing after food; no matter
what; no matter how; began to wake and spur him。 Suppose he
pawned his watch? But no; on Christmas…day … this was
Christmas…day! … the pawnshop would be closed。 Suppose he
went to the public…house close by at Blackhall; and offered
the watch; which was worth ten pounds; in payment for a meal
of bread and cheese? The incongruity was too remarkable; the
good folks would either put him to the door; or only let him
in to send for the police。 He turned his pockets out one
after another; some San Francisco tram…car checks; one cigar;
no lights; the pass…key to his father's house; a pocket…
handkerchief; with just a touch of scent: no; money could be
raised on none of these。 There was nothing for it but to
starve; and after all; what mattered it? That also was a
door of exit。
He crept close among the bushes; the wind playing round him
like a lash; his clothes seemed thin as paper; his joints
burned; his skin curdled on his bones。 He had a vision of a
high…lying cattle…drive in California; and the bed of a dried
stream with one muddy pool; by which the vaqueros had
encamped: splendid sun over all; the big bonfire blazing; the
strips of cow browning and smoking on a skewer of wood; how
warm it was; how savoury the steam of scorching meat! And
then again he remembered his manifold calamities; and
burrowed and wallowed in the sense of his disgrace and shame。
And next he was entering Frank's restaurant in Montgomery
Street; San Francisco; he had ordered a pan…stew and venison
chops; of which he was immoderately fond; and as he sat
waiting; Munroe; the good attendant; brought him a whisky
punch; he saw the strawberries float on the delectable cup;
he heard the ice chink about the straws。 And then he woke
again to his detested fate; and found himself sitting; humped
together; in a windy combe of quarry refuse … darkness thick
about him; thin flakes of snow flying here and there like
rags of paper; and the strong shuddering of his body clashing
his teeth like a hiccough。
We have seen John in nothing but the stormiest condition; we
have seen him reckless; desperate; tried beyond his moderate
powers; of his daily self; cheerful; regular; not unthrifty;
we have seen nothing; and it may thus be a surprise to the
reader to learn that he was studiously careful of his health。
This favourite preoccupation now awoke。 If he were to sit
there and die of cold; there would be mighty little gained;
better the police cell and the chances of a jury trial; than
the miserable certainty of death at a dyke…side before the
next winter's dawn; or death a little later in the gas…
lighted wards of an infirmary。
He rose on aching legs; and stumbled here and there among the
rubbish heaps; still circumvented by the yawning crater of
the quarry; or perhaps he only thought so; for the darkness
was already dense; the snow was growing thicker; and he moved
like a blind man; and with a blind man's terrors。 At last he
climbed a fence; thinking to drop into the road; and found
himself staggering; instead; among the iron furrows of a
ploughland; endless; it seemed; as a whole county。 And next
he was in a wood; beating among young trees; and then he was
aware of a house with many lighted windows; Christmas
carriages waiting at the doors; and Christmas drivers (for
Christmas has a double edge) becoming swiftly hooded with
snow。 From this glimpse of human cheerfulness; he fled like
Cain; wandered in the night; unpiloted; careless of whither
he went; fell; and lay; and then rose again and wandered
further; and at last; like a transformation scene; behold him
in the lighted jaws of the city; staring at a lamp which had
already donned the tilted night…cap of the snow。 It came
thickly now; a 'Feeding Storm'; and while he yet stood
blinking at the lamp; his feet were buried。 He remembered
something like it in the past; a street…lamp crowned and
caked upon the windw