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They accordingly armed themselves with big sticks. Cournet gave fifty
francs to Henry, and promised him fifty more when they should have
crossed the second Custom House line.
"
That is to say, at four o'clock in the morning," said Henry.
It was midnight.
They set out on their way.
What Henry called the "passes" another would have called the
"hindrances." They were a succession of pitfalls and quagmires. It had
been raining, and all the holes were pools of water.
An indescribable footpath wound through an inextricable labyrinth,
sometimes as thorny as a heath, sometimes as miry as a marsh.
The night was very dark.
From time to time, far away in the darkness, they could hear a dog bark.
The smuggler then made bends or zigzags, turned sharply to the right or
to the left, and sometimes retraced his steps.
Cournet, jumping hedges, striding over ditches, stumbling at every
moment, slipping into sloughs, laying hold of briers, with his clothes
in rags, his hands bleeding, dying with hunger, battered about, wearied,
worn out, almost exhausted, followed his guide gaily.
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