During
that part of the conversation which regarded this, Strap had crept
under the bed, where he lay in the agonies of fear; so that it
was with great difficulty I persuaded him our danger was over, and
prevailed on him to awake the pedlar, and inform him of what he
had seen and heard.
The itinerant merchant no sooner felt somebody shaking him by the
shoulder, than he started up, called, as loud as he could, "Thieves,
thieves! Lord have mercy upon us!" And Rifle, alarmed at this
exclamation, jumped up, cocked one of his pistols, and turned
towards the door to kill the first man that should enter; for he
verily believed himself beset: when his Dulcinea, after an immoderate
fit of laughter, persuaded him that the poor pedlar, dreaming of
thieves, had only cried out in his sleep.
Meanwhile, my comrade had undeceived our fellow-lodger, and informed
him of his reason for disturbing him; upon which, getting up softly,
he peeped through the hole, and was so terrified with what he saw,
that, falling down on his bare knees, he put up a long petition to
Heaven to deliver him from the hands of that ruffian, and promised
never to defraud a customer for the future of the value of a pin's
point, provided he might be rescued from the present danger.
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