"
The strumming of the piano reached us from the drawing-room, as he fired
that shot at me. He threw away his cheroot, and took Mr. Franklin's arm,
to go back to the ladies. I noticed that the sky was clouding over
fast, as I followed them to the house. Mr. Murthwaite noticed it too. He
looked round at me, in his dry, droning way, and said:
"The Indians will want their umbrellas, Mr. Betteredge, to-night!"
It was all very well for HIM to joke. But I was not an eminent
traveller--and my way in this world had not led me into playing
ducks and drakes with my own life, among thieves and murderers in the
outlandish places of the earth. I went into my own little room, and sat
down in my chair in a perspiration, and wondered helplessly what was to
be done next. In this anxious frame of mind, other men might have ended
by working themselves up into a fever; I ended in a different way. I lit
my pipe, and took a turn at ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Before I had been at it five minutes, I came to this amazing bit--page
one hundred and sixty-one--as follows:
"Fear of Danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than Danger
itself, when apparent to the Eyes; and we find the Burthen of Anxiety
greater, by much, than the Evil which we are anxious about.
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