You had better come peaceably to terms; for, were it even
the case that you could escape _me_, you have only to cast your eye up
the path before you, to be assured of the utter impossibility of
escaping those who aid me. The same glance will also show you the
tollgate, which you could not see before. Look ahead, young sir, and be
wise in time; and let me perform my duties without hindrance."
Casting a furtive glance on the point indicated by the ruffian, the
youth saw, for the first time, a succession of bars--a rail fence, in
fact, of more than usual height--completely crossing the narrow pathway
and precluding all passage. Approaching the place of strife, the same
glance assured him, were two men, well armed, evidently the accomplices
of the robber who had pointed to them as such. The prospect grew more
and more perilous, and the youth, whose mind was one of that sort which
avails itself of its energies seemingly only in emergencies, beheld his
true course, with a moment's reflection, and hesitated not a single
moment in its adoption.
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