I made no answer to this, but my heart sank within me; for I perceived, what I might have known before, that he had observed the object of my coming thither.
He soon became strong enough to move about the place a little, and from that time I noticed a great change in him, and that he seemed to regard me in a very evil way. One evening when I came into the hut, after an absence in the town, I saw that he had taken down one of his pistols from the wall, and was loading it and picking the flint. He kept that pistol by him for a couple of days, and was forever fingering it, cocking it, and then lowering the hammer again.
I do not know why he did not shoot me through the brains at this time; for I verily believe that he had it upon his mind to do so, and that more than once. And now, in looking back upon the business, it appears to me to be little less than a miracle that I came forth from this adventure with my life. Yet had I certainly known that death was waiting upon me, I doubt that I should have left that place; for in truth, now that I had escaped from the Lavinia, as above narrated, I had nowhere else to go, nor could I ever show my face in England or amongst my own people again. Thus matters stood until one morning the whole business came to an end so suddenly and so unexpectedly that for a long while I felt as though all might be a dream, from which I should soon awake.
We were sitting together silently, he in a very moody and bitter humor. He had his pistol lying across his knees, as he used to do at that time.
Suddenly he turned to me as though in a fit of rage. "Why do you stay about this accursed fever hole?" cried he; "what do you want here, with your saintly face and your godly airs?"
"I stay here," said I, bitterly, "because I have nowhere else to go."
"And what do you want?" said he.
"That you know," said I, "as well as I myself."
"And do you think," said he, "that I will give it to you?"
"No," said I, "that I do not."