I lay down, praying for mercy. "On your back! On your back!" he continued. "And your hands by your sides. So! That is better. Now listen to me, Mr. Price, and think on what I say. When you want to be laid out for good as you are laid out now, when you are ready for your coffin and shroud--and the worms--then break your promise to me, for coffin and shroud and worms will be ready. Think of that--think of that and of me when the temptation comes. And hark you, you fancy," he went on, fixing his eyes on mine, "and you count on it, that I shall be taken with the others, or escaping shall be where you need not fear me. Don't deceive yourself. If a week hence I am in prison, take that for a sign, and please yourself. But if I am free, obey, obey--or God help you!" I know not how to describe with any approach to fidelity the peculiar effect which words apparently so simple had on me, or the terror, out of all proportion to the means chosen--for he spoke without oath, violence, or passion--into which they threw me, and which was very far from passing with the sound. I had feared Ferguson, but I feared this man more, a hundred times more! And yet I can give no reason, adduce no explanation, save that he spoke quietly, and so seemed to mean all and something beyond what he said. The plans for deceiving him and breaking my word which I had entertained a moment before melted into thinnest air while I lay and sweated in my narrow berth, not daring to move eye or limb until he gave me leave. And he, as if he knew how fear of him grew on me under his gaze--or in sheer cruelty, I know not which--kept me there, and sat smiling and smiling at me (as the devil may smile at some dead man passed beyond redemption)--kept me there God knows how long. But so long, and to such purpose, that when at length he bade me rise, and looking closely into my face, nodded, and told me I might go--nay, later than that, when he had led me downstairs and opened the door for me, and supported me through it--for in the cold air I staggered like a drunken man--even then, I say, so heavy was the spell of fear laid on me, and such his power, I dared not move or stir until he had twice--smiling the second time--bidden me go. "Go, man," said he, "you are free. But remember!" CHAPTER XXX