Without a second to spare, Pip's friends come to rescue
Pip, who is inches away of being killed by the brute Orlick.
In the last newsletter, chapter 52, Pip received the ominous letter
from a stranger who beckoned him to go to the marshes adjacent to
his home town alone, lest something bad should befall the convict Magwitch.
Head over heels, he rushes to the marshlands to confront the blackmailer, leaving
in his confusion the letter in his London lodgings.
After having dined at his old home town's inn, where at the expense
of his appetite the waiter tells him a distorted version of Pip's story,
he rushes at the setting of the sun to the marshes. The letter mentioned
to seek out the old, abandoned sluice house near the lime kiln.
Pip finds the place dark and empty, so he decides to wait there. In
a moment of distraction, he gets overwhelmed by a bulky figure. He gets
tied up to a staircase, much to the displeasure of his broken arm.
The assailant lights a candle, and popping up in the flickering flame is one of
the last persons Pip expected to see: the oaf Orlick, his uncle's other
apprenticeship.
While Pip is recollecting his thoughts, Orlick confesses to have been the
unknown attacker who knocked Pip's draconic sister unconscious, making
her lose her speech, who stalked the town girl Biddy, and who teamed up
with the nemesis of Magwitch Compeyson to trap Pip. Compeyson also laid
the snare by writing the letter to Pip, since Orlick is illiterate. Orlick
also accuses him of losing his position as private guard in Satis House.
Passing over this avalanche of nonsense, Pip realizes that he has to fight
not only for his life, but more importantly for the life of Magwitch, who
he's trying to save from the gallows. With all his might, he tries to knock
the table onto Orlick, who's already reaching for a blunt hammer...
His shouts for help don't go unheard, and Pip's friends bust into the sluice
house, and in the following scuffle, save Pip, but Orlick slips their grasp.
Why they're there? Because Pip left the letter in London, and Herbert just
read it minutes after Pip left. Very convenient for our hero.
The painting is done in gouache on canvas.
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