Jack and His Seven Foes — page 177: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

and Swaggerer, Ne Ot os BE set oe ee “ ¥ hr edn For) bey VE r Pea ety Ln GSins 4 <p uy 4 te | ane ‘ 168 ‘ With a bush stuck in the hole,” said the Panther, ‘‘ who is to find us? ” The correctness of this remark our readers know. From that place they crept out to murder little Hugh. To that place they returned when the crime was committed. So again with Merryweather’s mother and Martin’s wife, and from its secret recess they shot poor old Ben. About thirty yards from the mouth there was a slight hollow in the wall not bigger than a good-sized cupboard. In the ordinary way a person enter- ing the cave would have passed it by. It was only when their eyes grew ac- customed to the dim light that they per- celved it. When Jack discovered them, and boldly determined to unearth them, they could have shot him as he entered, but the old behef of his having a charmed life held them back. In addition there was the prospect of safety. ‘““ Let us hide here,’’ said the Panther, “and when he and his men—curse them all !—are gone by, we will cut and run.”’ But all the men did not come in, and when Jack went out again, he left a euard at the mouth while he went down to the settlement. When he returned, he re-entered with only a few followers, and when, having siven him time to get away down into the caverns, the Panther crept out, he saw that the guard was still there. Four men stood facing the cave’s mouth with their rifles in their hands ready to stop the retreat of the Panther and at least a -dozen others were lounging about. The road of exit was fairly barred. “ What shall we do now?” asked the Panther. “Wait and see if we get a chance to clear out.” “That's always your cry,” growled the Panther: ‘‘ Wait and see.’ I’m for a shot at one of them, and then a rush for it.” “ We can’t rush out of this said the Swageerer. “Well, Vil wait, then,” the Panther said, and squatting down, he deliberately struck a match and lit his pipe. “On my word,’ said the Swaggerer, ‘‘T think you are mad at times.” rat-hole,”’ JACK AND HIS SEVEN FOES. “Mad! What do you mean P”’ “Lighting your pipe. they didn’t see you.’ “Tt so happens that they didn’t.” “But they may smell it.” ‘‘ Let them,” said the Panther. ‘ This is some of the tobacco that belonged to the fellow whose wife we settled. Tt s as good as any I’ve had for months.” “You like this sort of bounce,” the Swageerer muttered. ‘It’s all show off.” “Say that again,” snarled the Pan- ther, “and Pll drag you outside and let them take us both. I’m commanding officer, and can capitulate when I please.” ‘You would never do that.” “Oh, yes, I would, and grin when they tortured me, if they would only let me see them torture you.” ‘T wish you would be more reason- able,’ said the Swaggerer, with a groan. , ‘““ Reasonable!’ returned the Pan- ther. ‘You are a beauty to talk of reason! Perhaps you would reason with those fellows outside if they caught our “No. What would be the useP” | “None. They would take us and strip us, and rend the flesh from our bones. If I were in their place I would do so. Then I would rasp the flayed flesh with bristly brushes, and cut and slash, but not lall, until the tortures of the accursed would be as nothing com- pared to it.” ‘“ Have done with it,’ the Swaggerer said, with a freezing sensation in his veins. ‘It’s no use anticipating an evil before it comes.” ‘“ And it will come,” returned the Panther, who always delighted in tor- menting his companion. ‘he hours passed very slowly to the pair of scoundrels, and Jack did not return. His long absence gave an idea of the extent of the cavern; and the hope that he had lost his way, or met | with an accident, temporarily brightened the lot of the and his friend. “T have thought that the cave was a Swaggerer mammoth one,” said the former. ‘ It echoes and rumbles at the slghtest sound.’’ ‘Send it may be too big for them It’s a wonder ECORNICLOOKSsE® +) * { ¢ + + : ‘ ey : es <a ¥ oh — * F re f ~~ Jd ¥ 2 ;