Had it not been
all right he would have hauled me to the prison quickly enough."
As the sentry knew that the governor had left but a short time
before he came on guard this convinced him, and, standing aside,
he allowed Malcolm and his companion to pass. Malcolm made his
way first to the apartment he had occupied, where he had already
settled for his lodging.
Leaving Thekla below he ran upstairs, and hastily donned the suit
of peasant's clothes, and then making the others into a bundle
descended again, and with Thekla made his way to the quiet spot
outside the city gates where the wagon was standing ready for
a start. He had already paid the peasant half the sum agreed, and
now handed him the remainder.
"I should scarce have known you," the peasant said, examining
Malcolm by the light of his pinewood torch. "Why, you look like
one of us instead of a city craftsman."
"I am going to astonish them when I get home," Malcolm said, "and
shall make the old folks a present of the wagon. So I am going to
arrive just as I was when I left them."
The peasant asked no farther questions, but, handing the torch to
Malcolm, and telling him that he would find half a dozen more in
the wagon, he took his way back to the town, where be intended to
sleep in the stables and to start at daybreak for his home.
He thought that the transaction was a curious one; but, as he had
been paid handsomely for his wagon, he troubled not his head about
any mystery there might be in the matter.
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