Late in the afternoon he was aroused from a doze by the sound of
footsteps, and, looking through the screen of leaves, he saw his
late jailers hurrying along the path. The charcoal burner carried a
heavy axe, while the Jew, whose head was bound up with a cloth, had
a long knife in his girdle. They went as far as the end of the
forest, and then retraced their steps slowly. They were talking
loudly, and Charlie could gather, from the few words he understood,
and by their gestures, something of the purport of their
conversation.
"I told you it was of no use your coming on as far as this," the
Jew said. "Why, he was hardly strong enough to walk."
"He managed to knock you down, and afterwards to drag you into the
house," the other said.
"It does not require much strength to knock a man down with a heavy
club, when he is not expecting it, Conrad. He certainly did drag me
in, but he was obliged to sit down afterwards, and I watched him
out of one eye as he was making his preparations, and he could only
just totter about. I would wager you anything he cannot have gone
two hundred yards from the house. That is where we must search for
him. I warrant we shall find him hidden in a thicket thereabouts."
"We shall have to take a lantern then, for it will be dark before
we get back.
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