the rats which infested the place. These loathsome objects were bad
enough, but what looked even more dreadful was an old butcher's axe with
an iron handle stained with clots of blood leaning up against the wall
on the right hand side. Still, these things did not give me much
concern. The talk of the two old people was so fascinating that I stayed
on and on, till the evening came and the dust heaps threw dark shadows
over the vales between them.

After a time I began to grow uneasy. I could not tell how or why, but
somehow I did not feel satisfied. Uneasiness is an instinct and means
warning. The psychic faculties are often the sentries of the intellect,
and when they sound alarm the reason begins to act, although perhaps not
consciously.

This was so with me. I began to bethink me where I was and by what
surrounded, and to wonder how I should fare in case I should be
attacked; and then the thought suddenly burst upon me, although without
any overt cause, that I was in danger. Prudence whispered: 'Be still and
make no sign,' and so I was still and made no sign, for I knew that four
cunning eyes were on me. 'Four eyes--if not more.' My God, what a
horrible thought! The whole shanty might be surrounded on three sides
with villains! I might be in the midst of a band of such desperadoes as
only half a century of periodic revolution can produce.

With a sense of danger my intellect and observation quickened, and I
grew more watchful than was my wont. I noticed that the old woman's eyes
were constantly wandering towards my hands. I looked at them too, and
saw the cause--my rings. On my left little finger I had a large signet
and on the right a good diamond.