### 206

A minute passes before the lurker shows himself. He is a hunchbacked old man dressed in rags, with thin grey hair and a wrinkled face that bears the impressions of a lifetime’s poverty. Two eyes, clouded with cataracts, stare up at you from the dark and dusty hole in the ground. ‘Take what you will but please spare my worthless life,’ he pleads.

‘You have nothing to fear from me, old man,’ you reply. ‘Here, let me help you out of this hole.’ And so saying, you take hold of his scrawny arms and lift him with ease, for he weighs no more than a young child. He hobbles over to the fireplace and stirs the broth with a wooden spoon, which he keeps on a string around his neck. He offers you some of this smelly gruel but you refuse politely.

If you have a Meal in your Backpack and wish to offer it to the old man, turn to 271.

If you do not have a Meal or do not wish to give it to him, you leave the hut and continue, turn to 123.