i ventured forward hesitantly , responding almost robotically to his primitive offer of calories free-for-the-taking in the way that i suppose millions of ravenous cave children and famished women before me had when lured by their stomachs to their black dooms then enslaved , hacked apart , or thrown off the edge of a cliff by a devilish madman , and all the while i was imagining , rather foolishly , that the horrible hand suspended in midair might conceal some delicious creamy nougat or a bit of fine , crackling butterscotch , safely sanitized in a wax paper wrapper , i hoped , though why i wanted anything that had been housed even temporarily in a pocket which hung anywhere near the body of that grimy miscreant is beyond the ability of my mature brain to fathom .