Chapter
five gives some background on Silass decision to leave his home unattended and
unlocked. He was simply doing a routine errand, briefly leaving the cabin. He didnt
lock the door because after fifteen years of this pattern of living, any alteration, such
as a robbery, seemed almost incomprehensible to the weaver hermit. Upon Silass return, he checks under the bricks where
his gold is kept and to his shock and horror sees that it has been stolen. Silas
immediately descends into a mode of panic, thinking that the "cruel power" of
God has made him "a second time desolate." He rushes into town, determined to
see the constable and put an end to this sudden misery. |