He had discharged
both his pistols--the robber might return--he had probably other
assistants besides the man who had fallen, and it seemed to him,
indeed, as if he had heard a muttering beneath the windows. He
explained hastily to his companion the necessity of procuring
ammunition.
"You are right," she said, somewhat contemptuously, "and have ventured
already more than ever I expected of man. Go, and shift for yourself,
since that is your purpose--leave me to my fate."
Without stopping for needless expostulation, Nigel hastened to his own
room through the secret passage, furnished himself with the ammunition
he sought for, and returned with the same celerity; wondering himself
at the accuracy with which he achieved, in the dark, all the
meanderings of the passage which he had traversed only once, and that
in a moment of such violent agitation.
He found, on his return, the unfortunate woman standing like a statue
by the body of her father, which she had laid straight on the floor,
having covered the face with the skirt of his gown. She testified
neither surprise nor pleasure at Nigel's return, but said to him
calmly--"My moan is made--my sorrow--all the sorrow at least that man
shall ever have noting of, is gone past; but I will have justice, and
the base villain who murdered this poor defenceless old man, when he
had not, by the course of nature, a twelvemonth's life in him, shall
not cumber the earth long after him.
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