Of the King’s Treasure
a heavy keg, under the burthen of which he staggered across the road into the brushwood. As soon as this was dispatched he returns and fetches me out a second, which he proceeds to hide in the same way; and he repeats the performance till the coach is empty! By this it was plain that the vile rogue was concealing the King’s treasure, and I could ha’ ripped the vitals out of him, and would ha’ done it then and there, but that I was without a weapon of any kind, and my wound would barely suffer me to sit up, let alone engage with a sound man like him. But when he had mounted the box again and drove off, no doubt in high glee, I’ll take oath, weapon or no weapon, that I would have climbed over the roof and choked him from behind if I had had the free use of my limbs. Old Irons was right, and to be mixed up with a stinkard like that was a piece of folly for a boy. Why, it was for us dolts to settle the escort, while he sat comfortable in his hole, and never so much as showing a face in the fight! And when that was done, it was a pistol through the window for Zacchary and
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