As we did so I heard a rush and the creak of a
plank, and looking up, I saw just a foot--no more--disappearing through the
trap-door.
In the case of one we love or fear intensely, what feats of comparative
anatomy will not the mind unconsciously perform? Constructing the whole
living animal from the turn of an elbow, the curl of a whisker, a segment
of a hand. How instantaneous and unerring is the instinct!
'Oh, Mary, what have I seen!' I whispered, recovering from the fascination
that held my gaze fast to the topmost rounds of the ladder, that
disappeared in the darkness above the open door in the loft. 'Come,
Mary--come away.'
At the same instant appeared the swarthy, sullen face of Dickon Hawkes in
the shadow of the aperture. Having but one serviceable leg, his descent
was slow and awkward, and having got his head to the level of the loft he
stopped to touch his hat to me, and to hasp and lock the trap-door.
When this was done, the man again touched his hat, and looked steadily and
searchingly at me for a second or so, while he got the key into his pocket.
'These fellahs stores their flour too long 'ere, ma'am.
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