Suppose we had gone on, in a
different form of hurry, ignorant of these facts?"
At this point I distinctly heard again the sound of a heavy
animal in the wood. Marquis also heard it and he plunged into
the thick bushes. Almost immediately we were at the spot, and
before us some heavy object turned in the leaves.
Marquis whipped an electric-flash out of his pocket. The body of
a man, tied at the hands and heels behind with a hitching-strap,
and with a linen carriage lap-cloth wound around his head and
knotted, lay there endeavoring to ease the rigor of his position
by some movement.
We should now know, in a moment, what desperate thing had
happened!
I cut the strap, while Marquis got the lap-cloth unwound from
about the man's head. It was the driver of the cut-under. But
we got no gain from his discovery. As soon as his face was
clear, he tore out of our grasp and began to run.
He took the old road to the westward of the island, where perhaps
he lived. We were wholly unable to stop him, and we got no reply
to our shouted queries except his wild cry for help. He
considered us his assailants from whom, by chance, he had
escaped.
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