‘Ah!’ he ejaculated.
‘Open the door, or it will be worse for you,’ now demanded the voice of Gordon.
‘Never!’ cried Blodget, desperately, and placing his back against it as he spoke.
‘Then we must use force,’ returned Gordon; ‘now, lads, your aid.’
In an instant the door was burst open, and Gordon, followed by three rough-looking men, entered the room.
‘Seize him, my lads; and bear him hence!’ cried Gordon, and in a moment the men rushed upon Blodget, who made a desperate resistance, but was quickly overpowered, and was conveyed, struggling, swearing, and foaming at the mouth, from the room, and being dragged to one of the dark vaults underground, was, by the orders of Gordon, locked in, and left to his own reflections, the nature of which may be readily conjectured, but cannot be properly described.
Alice, immediately on being thrust out of the room by Blodget, had hastened below, where, ascertaining that Gordon was from home, although it was very reluctantly that the old woman furnished her with the information, she made the best of her way to the cabaret, where she fortunately found him, in company with the men before mentioned, and having informed him of the perilous situation of our heroine, he left the place, and, as has been shown, arrived just at the critical juncture, to save her from destruction.
Blodget had no sooner been forced away from the room, than our heroine, overpowered by her feelings, and the unusual excitement she had undergone, fainted, and Alice Hewlett was once more left alone with her, and immediately set about the means of restoring her sensibility.
It would be impossible to portray correctly the disappointment and ungovernable rage of Blodget, when he found himself not only foiled in his diabolical attempt, but made a prisoner in that gloomy vault. He raved; he stormed; he cursed and swore, and breathed the most fearful maledictions against Alice, Gordon, and Jenkins. Then he made the place re-echo again with his cries to be released, but the hollow reverberations of that subterranean place, were the only answers he received, and he traversed the limited space in which he was confined, in a state bordering upon madness. He now at once saw that he was caught, trepanned, defeated, and all his well laid schemes rendered abortive, and himself left entirely at the mercy of Jenkins and his associates, and when he recollected the threats which the former had held out to him, if he should make any attempt against the peace of Inez, during his absence, he felt that he had every reason to apprehend the most terrible consequences through his mad impetuosity. All the horrors of an ignominious death rushed upon his mind, and his anguish was so great, that he completely sunk under it. He crouched down in one corner of his cell, and became the image of despair. It appeared as though his career of guilt was fast drawing to a close, and, that fate had destined, that every attempt he should in future make should be frustrated.
In this state he remained for more than two hours, without any one appearing to interrupt him, when he heard some one unbolting the door of his cell, and immediately afterwards it was thrown back on its hinges, and Gordon, accompanied by one of the men who had been his companions in the seizure, entered.