Who have you brought
with you to this hiding-place, poor fool; and where is the blind man?'
'I don't know where. His house was close shut. I waited, but no person
came; that was no fault of mine. This is Hugh--brave Hugh, who broke
into that ugly jail, and set us free. Aha! You like him now, do you? You
like him now!'
'Why does he lie upon the ground?'
'He has had a fall, and has been drinking. The fields and trees go
round, and round, and round with him, and the ground heaves under his
feet. You know him? You remember? See!'
They had by this time returned to where he lay, and both stooped over
him to look into his face.
'I recollect the man,' his father murmured. 'Why did you bring him
here?'
'Because he would have been killed if I had left him over yonder. They
were firing guns and shedding blood. Does the sight of blood turn you
sick, father? I see it does, by your face. That's like me--What are you
looking at?'
'At nothing!' said the murderer softly, as he started back a pace or
two, and gazed with sunken jaw and staring eyes above his son's head.
'At nothing!'
He remained in the same attitude and with the same expression on his
face for a minute or more; then glanced slowly round as if he had lost
something; and went shivering back, towards the shed.
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