And why should he fear the law more than another? As matters stood, he
would be left to bear the brunt of its vengeance, while the active
perpetrator of the deed escaped, and the accessories sought shelter
beneath the aegis of the law itself.
He was not long in reasoning it out. The strength of his resolution
imparted a fictitious vigor to his muscles. While unaided he could never
have stirred the heavy board, his efforts made it give, loosened as it
had already been, so that his thin, wiry body could slip between its edge
and the rest of the wall. He had one moment of intense terror lest it
slip elastically back and hold him pinioned there, but a convulsive
struggle sufficed, and he stepped out, exhausted and trembling, into the
gathering dusk, a lowering assemblage of darkling mountains, and at a
little distance the shacks of the construction gang. The doors were
aflare with flickering lights from within, and the unctuous smell of
frying pork was on the air. It was well for his enterprise that at the
critical moment the camp was discussing its well-earned supper and had
scant attention to bestow on other interests.
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