There was a
quick, swinging motion in the bodies of all, as though they must needs
always stride as fast as they might, and never rest, and their faces were
set hard, and thin with eternal wandering and disquiet. But the thinnest
and most restless-looking and hardest face was Cain's, and on the middle
of his forehead there was a dark spot, which God had set to show that
none might touch him, because he was the first murderer, and cursed for
ever. This had always been to me a dreadful picture, though I could not
choose but look at it, and was sorry indeed for Cain, for all he was so
wicked, because it seemed so hard to have to wander up and down the world
all his life long, and never be able to come to moorings. And yet this
very thing had come upon me now, for here we were, with the blood of two
men on our hands, wanderers on the face of the earth, who durst never go
home; and if the mark of Cain was not on my forehead already, I felt it
might come out there at any minute.
When we reached the Bugle I went upstairs and flung myself upon the bed
to try to rest a little and think, but Elzevir shut himself in with the
landlord, and I could hear them talking earnestly in the room under me.
After a while he came up and said that he had considered with the
landlord how we could best get away, telling him that we must be off at
once, but letting him suppose that we were eager to leave the place
because some of the Excise had got wind of our whereabouts.
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