OCR Text |
Show 134 "Gast, I can't go any farther with you unless you tell me what you are doing and where you are taking the children," I declared defiantly. His face worked, the muscles around his jaws constricting so that his cheekbones stood out more sharply. "Can you never just do as I say without demanding explanations?" he railed against me as he tugged the rope to test it. "I am a locator. I am taking the children to the eastern provinces where a nobleman of high rank will pay me one piece of silver for every person I bring in to settle his new lands. One piece of silver for each person, regardless of age." "You are going to sell the children!" I gasped. "To resettle them. One hundred and thirty children from Hamelin, Geist. You can have twenty of the silver pieces." "Twenty pieces of silver!" I laughed wildly, bitterly. "Shouldn't it be thirty?" "Get over here and help me!" He was pulling hard on the rope, straining backward, his muscles knotted. Over the noise of rainfall I could hear the groaning of the timber which shored up the cave. I had gone all the way up to him and I raged at him, "You're going to sell the children! What kind of devil are you? They've never done you any harm - they've given you their devotion and trust!" "Don't...you...get self-righteous with me!" he exploded as thunder crashed over our heads. "You knew what I was doing, and you went along with me because it suited your ovm purposes." "I didn't know that you were going to do this to the children," |