England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, English
"You villain!" Walton gasped, trembling with excitement. His nerves
were shaken as much by the narrowness of his escape as by the
struggle. "You would have murdered me!"
"I would!" the other said, with vengeful emphasis, and the two men
stood a moment glaring at one another. Meanwhile the wind, toying with
the white packet, rolled it slowly along the path; then, getting under
it at a place where a break in the ridge produced an eddy, it began to
hoist it merrily up the slope. At this point Walton's eye, straying
for a second from his opponent, alighted on it.
Just then Woolley spoke. "You have had a lucky escape!" he said, with
a reckless gesture, half menace, half farewell. "Good-bye! Don't come
across my path again, or you will fail to come off so easily. And
don't--don't, you fool!" he added, returning in a fresh fit of anger
when he had already turned his back, "pat a man on the head when you
have got him down, or he will----"
He stopped short, his hand at his breast pocket. For a moment, while
his face underwent a marvellous change, he searched frantically in the
pocket, in other pockets. "My notes!" he panted. "They were here!
Where are they?" Then a dreadful expression of rage and suspicion
distorted his features, and he advanced on Walton, his hands
outstretched. "What have you done with them?" he cried, scarcely able
to articulate. "Where are they?"
"There!" the other answered sternly. He pointed to a little space of
clear turf halfway up the slope. On this the white packet could be
seen fluttering gently over and over. "There! But if you are not
pretty quick, you villain, you will pay a heavy price for this
business!"
With an oath Woolley turned and started up the hill, the tall man
watching his exertions with grim satisfaction. The pursuer speedily
overtook the notes, but to gain possession of them was a different
matter. Three times he stooped to clutch them, and three times a
mischievous gust swept them away. Then he tripped and fell, and his
hat tumbled off, and his oaths flew freely on the breeze.
Altogether it was not a dignified retreat, but it was a very
characteristic one. The last time Walton got a glimpse of him, he was
on the crown of the hill. He was still running, bent double with his
face to the ground, and his hand outstretched. Walton never saw him
again.
The latter, getting back to the house unnoticed, said nothing for the
time of what had happened. But at night before he went to bed he told
the doctor. "He ought to go to prison!" the latter said sternly. He
was shocked beyond measure.
"So ought I," said Walton, "if it is to come to prisons."
"Pish!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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