" Sometimes she would steal behind me--I fancied I could hear
her breathing at my shoulder, even as I leaned over the rail--and
would apply her hand slyly to my lips, in her many attempts of this
nature. So vivid did one of these scenes become, that I thought I
really felt the soft smooth hand on my mouth, and I was actually about
to kiss it, when something that was smooth enough, certainly, but
which was very far from being soft, passed between my teeth, and I
felt it drawn so tight as completely to prevent my calling out. At the
same moment, my arms were seized from behind, and held as if grasped
by a vice. Turning, as well as I was able, I found that rascal Smudge
had been breathing within an inch of my ear, while he passed the gag;
and the Dipper was busy in lashing my arms together behind my
back. The whole had been done so suddenly, and yet with so much skill,
that I was a helpless prisoner, as it might be, in a single instant!
Resistance being as much out of my power as it was to give any alarm,
I was soon secured, hands and feet, and placed carefully in the waist,
a little out of the way; for I probably owed my life solely to the
wish of Smudge to keep me as his slave. From that instant every
appearance of stupidity vanished from this fellow's countenance and
manner, and he became the moving spirit, and I might say the soul, of
all the proceedings of his companions.
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