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"The Riddle of the Frozen Flame"

"Don't
think much uv this 'ere passage, anyway, do you?"
"No--narrower than the rest. But it may end just where we want to go.
'Journeys end in lovers' meetings' the poet sings, but not this kind of
a journey--no, not exactly. We'll find the hangman's rope at the end of
this riddle, Dollops, or I'm very much mistaken; and I've an
uncomfortable idea as to who will swing in the noose."
For some time after that they pressed on in silence. Here and there along
the passage the walls opened out suddenly into little cut-out places
filled as ever with their built-up sacks. Each time Cleek passed them he
chuckled aloud, and then--once more his face would become grim. For some
moments they groped along in the gloom, their heads bent, to prevent them
bumping the low mud ceiling, their lips silent, but in the hearts of each
a sort of dull dread. Merriton Towers! Borkins, perhaps. But what if
Borkins and Merriton had been working hand-in-glove, and then, somehow or
other, had had a split? That would account for a good deal, and in
particular the man's attitude toward his master.


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