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help starting, as I saw suddenly of horrible mockery which had underneath their applause and laughter a snarl of cursing, which was the real expression of their thoughts. I felt disposed in the same way to curse the speaker, though I knew no reason why.

He went on a little further, explaining what he meant to do; and then turning round, approached the table. An assistant, who was waiting, uncovered it quickly. The audience stirred with quickened interest, and I with consternation made a step forward, crying out with horror. The object on the table, writhing, twitching, to get free, but bound down by every limb, was a living man. The lecturer went forward calmly, taking his instruments from their case with perfect composure and coolness. "Now, ladies and gentlemen," he said: and inserted the knife in the flesh, making a long clear cut in the bound arm. I shrieked out, unable to restrain myself. The sight of the deliberate wound, the blood, the cry of agony that came from the victim, the calmness of all the lookerson, filled me with horror and rage indescribable. I felt myself clear the crowd away with a rush, and spring on the platform, I could not tell how. "You devil," I cried, "let the man go. Where is the police?— where is a magistrate?-let the man go this moment! fiends in human shape! I'll have you brought to justice!" I heard myself shouting wildly, as I flung myself upon the wretched sufferer, interposing between him and the knife. It was something like this that I said. My horror and rage were delirious, and carried me beyond all attempt at control.

Through it all I heard a shout of laughter rising from everybody round. The lecturer laughed, the audience roared with that sound

driven me out of myself in my first experience. All kinds of mocking cries sounded around me. "Let him a little blood to calm him down." "Let the fool have a taste of it himself, doctor." Last of all came a voice mingled with the cries of the sufferer whom I was trying to shield-"Take him. instead; curse him! take him instead.' I was bending over the man with my arms outstretched, protecting him, when he gave vent to this cry. And I heard immediately behind me a shout of assent, which seemed to come from the two strong young men with whom I had been standing, and the sound of a rush to seize me. I looked round, half mad with terror and rage; a second more and I should have been strapped on the table too. I made one wild bound into the midst of the crowd, and struggling among the arms stretched out to catch me, amid the roar of the laughter and cries-fled— fled wildly, I knew not whither, in panic and rage and horror, which no words could describe. Terror winged my feet. I flew, thinking as little of whom I met, or knocked down, or trod upon in my way, as the others did at whom I had wondered a little while ago.

No distinct impression of this headlong course remains in my mind, save the sensation of mad fear such as I had never felt before. I came to myself on the edge of the dark valley which surrounded the town. All my pursuers had dropped off before that time, and I have the recollection of flinging myself upon the ground on my face in the extremity of fatigue and exhaustion. I must have lain there undisturbed for some time. A few steps came and went, passing me; but no one took any notice, and the absence

of the noise and crowding gave me a momentary respite. But in my heat and fever I got no relief of coolness from the contact of the soil. I might have flung myself upon a bed of hot ashes, so much was it unlike the dewy cool earth which I expected, upon which one can always throw one's self with a sensation of repose. Presently the uneasiness of it made me struggle up again and look around me. I was safe at least the cries of the pursuers had died away, the laughter which made my blood boil offended my ears no more. The noise of the city was behind me, softened into an indefinite roar by distance, and before me stretched out the dreary landscape in which there seemed no features of attraction. Now that I was nearer to it, I found it not so unpeopled as I thought. At no great distance from me was the mouth of one of the mines, from which came an indication of subterranean lights: and I perceived that the flying figures which I had taken for travellers between one city and another, were in reality wayfarers endeavouring to keep clear of what seemed a sort of pressgang at the openings. One of them, unable to stop himself in his flight, adopted the same expedient as myself, and threw himself on the ground close to me when he had got beyond the range of pursuit. It was curious that we should meet there, he flying from a danger which I was about to face, and ready to encounter that from which I had fled. I waited for a few minutes till he had recovered his breath, and then: "What are you running from?" I said; "is there any dan ger there?" The man looked up at me with the same continual question in his eyes-Who is this fool?

"Danger!" he said. "Are you

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"Of use!" he cried staring; "who cares? Find out for yourself. If they get hold of you, you will soon understand."

I no longer took this for rudeness, but answered in his own way, cursing him too for a fool. "If I ask a warning I can give one; as for kindness," I said, "I was not looking for that."

At this he laughed, indeed we laughed together there seemed something ridiculous in the thought: and presently he told me, for the mere relief of talking, that round each of these pit-mouths there was a band to entrap every passerby who allowed himself to be caught, and send him down below to work in the mine. "Once there, there is no telling when you may get free," he said; "one time or other most people have a taste of it. You don't know what hard labour is if you have never been there. I had a spell once. There is neither air nor light, your blood boils in your veins from the fervent heat, you are never allowed to rest. You are put in every kind of contortion to get at it, your limbs twisted, and your muscles strained."

"For what!" I said.

"For gold!" he cried with a flash in his eyes-"gold! there it is inexhaustible; however hard you may work there is always more, and more!"

"And to whom does all that belong?" I said.

"To whoever is strong enough to get hold and keep possession

-sometimes one, sometimes an- rounded and drew in the unwary.

other. The only thing you are sure of is that it will never be you." Why not I as well as another? was the thought that went through my mind, and my new companion spied it with a shriek of derision.

"It is not for you nor your kind," he cried. "How do you think you could force other people to serve you? Can you terrify them or hurt them, or give them anything? You have not learnt yet who are the masters here."

This troubled me, for it was true. "I had begun to think," I said, "that there was no authority at all-for every man seems to do as he pleases you ride over one, and knock another down; or you seize a living man and cut him to pieces" -I shuddered as I thought of it"and there is nobody to interfere." "Who should interfere?" he said. "Why shouldn't every man amuse himself as he can? But yet for all that we've got our masters,' he cried, with a scowl, waving his clenched fist in the direction of the mines; "you'll find it out when you get there."

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It was a long time after this before I ventured to move - for here it seemed to me that for the moment I was safe-outside the city, yet not within reach of the dangers of that intermediate space which grew clearer before me as my eyes became accustomed to the lurid threatening afternoon light. One after another the fugitives came flying past me,-people who had escaped from the armed bands whom I could now see on the watch near the pit's mouth. I could see, too, the tactics of these bands how they retired, veiling the lights and the opening, when a greater number than usual of travellers appeared on the way, and then suddenly widening out, throwing out flanking lines, sur

I could even hear the cries with which their victims disappeared over the opening which seemed to go down into the bowels of the earth. By-and-by there came flying towards me a wretch more dreadful in aspect than any I had seen. His scanty clothes seemed singed and burnt into rags; his hair, which hung about his face unkempt and uncared for, had the same singed aspect; his skin was brown and baked. I got up as he approached, and caught him and threw him to the ground, without heeding his struggles to get on. "Don't you see," he cried with a gasp, they may get me again." He was one of those who had escaped out of the mines; but what was it to me whether they caught him again or not? I wanted to know how he had been caught, and what he had been set to do, and how he had escaped. Why should I hesitate to use my superior strength when no one else did? I kept watch over him that he should not get away.

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"Let me go!" he cried; "do you need to ask?" and he cursed me as he struggled, with the most terrible imprecations. "They may get me yet. Let me go!"

"Not till you tell me," I cried. "Tell me and I'll protect you. If they come near I'll let you go. Who are they, man? I must know."

He struggled up from the ground, clearing his hot eyes from the ashes that were in them, and putting aside his singed hair. He gave me a glance of hatred. and impotent resistance (for I was stronger than he), and then cast a wild terrified look back. The skirmishers did not seem to remark that anybody had escaped,

and he became gradually a little more composed. Who are they!" he said hoarsely; "they're cursed wretches like you and me and there are as many bands of them as there are mines on the road: and you'd better turn back and stay where you are. You are

safe here."

"I will not turn back,” I said. "I know well enough: you can't. You've got to go the round like the rest," he said, with a laugh which was like a sound uttered by a wild animal rather than a human voice. The man was in my power, and I struck him, miserable as he was. It seemed a relief thus to get rid of some of the fury in my mind. "It's a lie," I said; "I go because I please. Why shouldn't I gather a band of my own if I please, and fight those brutes, not fly from them like you?”’

He chuckled and laughed below his breath, struggling and cursing and crying out, as I struck him again," You gather a band! What could you offer them?-where would you find them? Are you better than the rest of us? Are you not a man like the rest? Strike me you can, for I'm down. But make yourself a master and a chief -you!"

"Why not I?" I shouted again, wild with rage and the sense that I had no power over him, save to hurt him. That passion made my hands tremble: he slipped from me in a moment, bounded from the ground like a ball, and with a yell of derision escaped, and plunged into the streets and the clamour of the city from which I had just flown. I felt myself rage after him, shaking my fists with a consciousness of the ridiculous passion of impotence that was in me, but no power of restraining it; and there was not one of the fugitives who passed, however desperate he might be, who

did not make a mock at me as he darted by. The laughing-stock of all those miserable objects, the sport of fate, afraid to go forward, unable to go back, with a fire in my veins urging me on! But presently I grew a little calmer out of mere exhaustion, which was all the relief that was possible to me. And by-and-by, collecting all my faculties, and impelled by this impulse, which I seemed unable to resist, I got up and went cautiously on.

But

Fear can act in two ways: it paralyses and it renders cunning. At this moment I found it inspire me. I made my plans before I started, how to steal along under the cover of the blighted brushwood which broke the line of the valley here and there. I set out only after long thought, seizing the moment when the vaguely perceived band were scouring in the other direction intercepting the travellers. Thus, with many pauses, I got near to the pit's mouth in safety. my curiosity was as great as, almost greater than, my terror. I had kept far from the road, dragging myself sometimes on hands and feet over broken ground, tearing my clothes and my flesh upon the thorns; and on that further side all seemed so silent and so dark in the shadow cast by some disused machinery, behind which the glare of the fire from below blazed upon the other side of the opening, that I could not crawl along in the darkness, and pass, which would have been the safe way; but with a breathless hot desire to see and know, dragged myself to the very edge to look down. Though I was in the shadow, my eyes were nearly put out by the glare on which I gazed. It was not fire; it was the lurid glow of the gold, glowing like flame, at which countless miners were working. They

-sometimes one, sometimes another. The only thing you are sure of is that it will never be you."

Why not I as well as another? was the thought that went through my mind, and my new companion spied it with a shriek of derision.

"It is not for you nor your kind," he cried. "How do you think you could force other people to serve you? Can you terrify them or hurt them, or give them anything? You have not learnt yet who are the masters here."

This troubled me, for it was true. "I had begun to think," I said, "that there was no authority at all-for every man seems to do as he pleases you ride over one, and knock another down; or you seize a living man and cut him to pieces" -I shuddered as I thought of it"and there is nobody to interfere." "Who should interfere?" he said. "Why shouldn't every man amuse himself as he can? But yet for all that we've got our masters," he cried, with a scowl, waving his clenched fist in the direction of the mines; "you'll find it out when you get there."

It was a long time after this before I ventured to move — for here it seemed to me that for the moment I was safe-outside the city, yet not within reach of the dangers of that intermediate space which grew clearer before me as my eyes became accustomed to the lurid threatening afternoon light. One after another the fugitives came flying past me,-people who had escaped from the armed bands whom I could now see on the watch near the pit's mouth. I could see, too, the tactics of these bands how they retired, veiling the lights and the opening, when a greater number than usual of travellers appeared on the way, and then suddenly widening out, throwing out flanking lines, sur

rounded and drew in the unwary. I could even hear the cries with which their victims disappeared over the opening which seemed to go down into the bowels of the earth. By-and-by there came flying towards me a wretch more dreadful in aspect than any I had seen. His scanty clothes seemed singed and burnt into rags; his hair, which hung about his face unkempt and uncared for, had the same singed aspect; his skin was brown and baked. I got up as he approached, and caught him and threw him to the ground, without heeding his struggles to get on. "Don't you see, "he cried with a gasp, they may get me again." He was one of those who had escaped out of the mines; but what was it to me whether they caught him again or not? I wanted to know how he had been caught, and what he had been set to do, and how he had escaped. Why should I hesitate to use my superior strength when no one else did? I kept watch over him that he should not get away.

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"You have been in the mines?" I said.

"Let me go!" he cried; "do you need to ask?" and he cursed me as he struggled, with the most terrible imprecations. "They may get me yet. Let me go!"

"Not till you tell me," I cried. "Tell me and I'll protect you. If they come near I'll let you go. Who are they, man? I must know."

He struggled up from the ground, clearing his hot eyes from the ashes that were in them, and putting aside his singed hair. He gave me a glance of hatred and impotent resistance (for I was stronger than he), and then cast a wild terrified look back. The skirmishers did not seem to remark that anybody had escaped,

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