The sun was already westering when I came to a pump beside the
way; and seizing the handle I worked it vigorously, then, placing
my hollowed hands beneath the gushing spout, drank and pumped,
alternately, until I had quenched my thirst. I now found myself
prodigiously hungry, and remembering the bread and cheese in my
knapsack, looked about for an inviting spot in which to eat.
On one side of the road was a thick hedge, and, beneath this
hedge, a deep, dry, grassy ditch; and here, after first slipping
off my knapsack, I sat down, took out the loaf and the cheese,
and opening my clasp-knife, prepared to fall to.
At this moment I was interrupted in a rather singular fashion, for
hearing a rustling close by, I looked up, and into a face that was
protruded through a gap in the hedge above me.
It needed but a glance at the battered hat with its jaunty brim,
and great silver buckle, and the haggard, devil-may-care face
below, to recognize the individual whom I had seen thrown out of
the hedge tavern the morning before.
It was a very thin face, as I have said, pale and hollow-eyed and
framed in black curly hair, whose very blackness did but accentuate
the extreme pallor of the skin, which was tight, and drawn above
the cheek bones and angle of the jaw. Yet, as I looked at this
face, worn and cadaverous though it was, in the glance of the
hollow eyes, in the line of the clean-cut mouth I saw that
mysterious something which marks a man, what we call for want of
a better word, a gentleman.
"Good evening!" said he, and lifted the battered hat.
"Good evening!" I returned.
"Pardon me," said he, "but I was saluting the bread and cheese."
"Indeed!" said I.
"Indeed!" he rejoined, "it is the first edible I have been on
speaking terms with, so to speak, for rather more than three
days, sir."
"You are probably hungry?" said I.
"It would be foolish to deny it, sir."
"Then, if you care to eat with me in the ditch here, you are
heartily welcome," said I.
"With all the pleasure in life!" said he, vaulting very nimbly
through the hedge; "you shall not ask me twice or the very deuce
is in it! Believe me, I--" Here he stopped, very suddenly, and
stood looking at me.
"Ah!" said he gently, and with a rising inflection, letting the
ejaculation escape in a long-drawn breath.