The question recurred to Ben: Was he willing to surrender his money,
and go forth penniless, or should he attempt to escape or resist?
"If Jake would only wake up!" he thought, surveying, with
perplexity, the recumbent form at his side.
But Jake was as senseless as a log, and the attempt to rouse him
would inevitably attract attention below and precipitate the attack,
besides leaving them utterly penniless.
There was another idea which occurred to our hero: Could he secrete
his own money and Jake's, or the greater part of it, and thus save
it from the clutches of his dishonest host?
If it had been in the form of bank-bills, there might have been some
chance of doing this, but it was not so easy to conceal gold pieces.
While considering this question, Ben rose softly and looked out of
the window. Strictly speaking, there was no window, but a hole about
fifteen inches square, screened by a curtain of coarse cotton cloth.
This Ben moved aside, and looked out.
It was not a very dark night. In the half-light Ben was able to see
a considerable distance. The height of the opening from the ground
was probably not much over twelve feet, as well as the boy could
estimate.
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