Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1906-04-19

gaped for an answer.
Il thought / was bewitched. There
was still no Hood, and presently sat
down to breakfast, and the Greeks re-
turned and grouped together little
way off. But when | approached they
sat silent and gave me no answer till,
getting beyond federation, seized two
and cracked their heads together. But,
upon that, up leaped one of the scoun-
drels and drew his knife on me. Il
! stepped back, but Stamboulos, dirty
thief. took him by the arm and whis-
! pered in his ear, and there were nod
dings all round the party.
sBy this time, as you may guess, l
was in a deuce Of huff, and on !
strobe into the wood, whistling to show
my indifference. 1t was silly, no doubt,
but / did not want pack of skunks
| like that to imagine / was worrying
about them. Just as / had got dozen
/ wards or so / heard some one come
| into the forest after me and, turning,
caught sight Of a man named Deme-
trios. What are you after? thought l.
But paid no attention and kept on.
/ kept straight ahead, for the wood was
/ very thick there, and there was no one
| about. only wanted to get away for
a spell and consider the position. But
| after bit / pulled up and took seat
| on a patch of lther where the ground
was more open. The morning sky shone
on the bushes and worked into the cor
ners of the forest, and as / sat there
| in meditative way heard sounds
| coming nearer, and presently Deme-
| trios pops his head out of bit of
shrubbery and glances at me. Imme-
| diately after some one approached
upon the other side, and | caught
glimpse of another of the gang poking
his ugly phiz from behind a tree, and
then, again, found third to the left.
This set me up right awake, and |
asked myself what it meant. You
can't wonder if / could not make it
out. Could you have tumbled to it?
Well, l didn't, not just then. But for
all that, it made me angry. rose and
ran at Demetrios with the express idea
of kicking him; but retreating, he
slipped out knife and snarled at me
like an angry dog, and at the same
time his fellows drew up to support
him. / had come out without a weap-
on, and 1 was at disadvantage, but
by this time it seemed to me to be
growing serious, and so l made of
back toward the cave. The beggars
followed me-
when l got near the cave-there is
track that runs hard by, winding
somewhere over to the western valleys,
but unfrequented-1 will take a walk
here said to myself, and accordingly
l turned off, but at that motion of mine
there was a sort of scrambling among
the underground and three OF the cut
throats barred my path, each showing
an ugly knife. Very WELL thought I,
I don't know yet what you're up to,
but I'll warrant I'll find out, and mean
while I'll see that I'm on little better
footing in the matter or arms / got
back to the cavern, where the two re
naming scoundrels sat tossing coins.
and / went in. My revolvers had been
removed, and there was not so much
as even pocketknife left to me.
sYou will conceive now that began
to be scared. What was the issue of
all this? moved down toward the
slope, and two beasts got in my way
and grinned at me. I turned back and
tried another route, but there. was
confronted by two more. | tell you
that it dawned on me then that it was
plain black murder they meant!"
Sercombe paus-> --l and refreshed
himself. casting a gil ice at US in which
/ thought detected a look of fear re-
newed from his experiences.
Perhaps you say" he went on in a
slow voice, that / might have cut and
run for it. That thought occurred to
me, but put it off. l thought this was
a mistake on their part which could
explain. Anyhow, thought, they're
taking no active proceedings. They
want to pen me up, that's all, and the
morning was wearing on, and, to say
the truth, l thought I'd argue it out
and have some food, but l soon found
that, for. any arguments had, might
as well have talked to the wind. To
begin with, only two of them under
stood more than sailors English, and
of these Stamboulos merely grinned by
way of reply, while the other paid no
heed. What Hood had said to them
don't know. He had pretty well alien
ated them from me before this-and
they were only the scum of the earth to
begin Without up to now they had
proved pacific. I guess he poured some
poison into their ears. That dirty Lee
vantine breed is superstitious. Perhaps
was supposed to have the evil eye,
but more probably it was filthy greed
that was at the bottom Of it. Anyhow,
could not come to terms with them,
and so sat in my place, with my back
against ledge of rock, and whistled.
All right said, I'll dine on it.
1T may have been an hour or two
later when they prepared a meal for
themselves. Up to this i Nss.n't occur
red to me to wonder wlele my food