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Show 135 I protested too loud, flushing hotly because the truth had stung. "Look at them, they're half-dead already! They'll never survive a long journey." "They will recover," he declared. "Tonight or tomorrow night they will begin to sleep again." Gast's face was flushed, too, whether from the exertion of pulling on the rope or from agitation, I couldn't tell. "Come with me, Geist," he said, half entreating and half demanding. "When we reach the provinces, you and I will have enough wealth to be free of stinking places like Hamelin forever." "No, Rom, please turn back! Bring back the children!" I begged. His lips curled downward as he turned to sneer into my face. "You are a fool," he snarled. "You are no better than the rest of the swine in Hamelin. I will ask only one more time - will you come with me?" "No, I won't go, damn you!" I yelled, cursing him at the top of my voice. "And you won't go either! I'm going to run back to the church and tell the people that you are stealing their children!" "That you will not do!" He had been straining hard to pull the rope, but with vicious suddenness he lashed out his right arm and struck me such a violent blow across the throat that I was hurled backward, rolling head over heels down the side of the mountain to the pathway below. Although I'd been knocked almost senseless, I could hear a noise much louder than thunder, and even in my stupor I realized that the timber had given away and the cave collapsed. The roaring grew in volume as I sprang to my feet, dazed, and watched the whole mountainside begin to fall - uprooted trees, boulders and mud all sliding downward |