Hardwick
suffer, he didn't quite know how, for the manner in which she had
treated him.
Time passed. Every hour seemed to poor Jack to contain at least
double the number of minutes which are usually reckoned to that
division of time. Moreover, not having eaten for several hours, he
was getting hungry.
A horrible suspicion flashed across his mind. "The wretches can't
mean to starve me, can they?" he asked himself, while, despite his
constitutional courage, he could not help shuddering at the idea.
He was unexpectedly answered by the sliding of a little door in the
wall, and the appearance of the old man whose interview with Peg has
been referred to.
"Are you getting hungry, my dear sir?" he inquired, with a
disagreeable smile upon his features.
"Why am I confined here?" demanded Jack, in a tone of irritation.
"Why are you confined?" repeated his interlocutor. "Really, one
would think you did not find your quarters comfortable."
"I am so far from finding them comfortable that I insist upon
leaving them immediately," returned Jack.
"Then all you have got to do is to walk through that door.
"It is locked; I can't open it."
"Can't open it!" repeated the old man, with another disagreeable
leer; "perhaps, then, it will be well for you to wait till you are
strong enough."
Irritated by this reply, Jack threw himself spitefully against the
door, but to no purpose.
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