A fortnight had now waned away, and still Jenkins and his companions did not return, and Gordon, who did not expect that they would be gone so long, was fearful lest some accident should have befallen them. He still kept the wretched Blodget confined in the same place, and he now became the complete victim of despair. His form had wasted away, and his countenance betrayed the deep, the intense agony which perpetually tortured his mind. How dreary were the days and nights passed in that dark cell, where he had nothing to commune but his own dreadful thoughts, and where the horrors of his own guilty conscience constantly brought to his imagination the many crimes he had committed. Conjecture cannot form but a weak picture of the mental sufferings of that man of crime. Oh, who would be guilty, did they but think upon the horrors that must sooner or later overtake them?—For the gratification of some moment of sensual pleasure; for the transitory indulgence of some ambitious wish, the unhappy wretch falls into crime, to pay for it by years of mental suffering, and ignominious death, and an eternity of torment!—Oh, how fearful the price, would but erring mortals pause and think!
It was on a stormy midnight, when nearly three weeks had elapsed since Jenkins had left, when a party who were in company with Gordon in the little back room, smoking, were suddenly aroused by hearing a shrill whistle. The cigars were removed from their lips in an instant, and they jumped hastily to their feet.
‘Jenkins’s signal, by all that’s fortunate;’ exclaimed Gordon, advancing towards the door, ‘they have come back at last, and all safe, I hope!’
‘This has, indeed, been a long trip captain,’ said Gordon, ‘and I had began to fear that you were never going to return.’
‘Better late than never,’ answered Jenkins; ‘but how is all at the house?’
‘Quite safe, captain,’ replied Gordon, with a peculiar grin, ‘the lady is in her own apartments with her companion, Alice, and that arrant scoundrel Blodget, confined in one of the vaults underneath, where he has been since two or three days after your departure.’
‘Ah!’ exclaimed Jenkins, ‘has he then dared to scorn the warning that I gave him?’
Gordon briefly related what had taken place between Blodget and our heroine.
‘Why, the damned villain!’ cried Jenkins, passionately; ‘after the strict injunctions which I laid upon him, and knowing that he was placed entirely at my mercy. But he shall pay dearly for it; his doom is sealed.’
‘I did not know whether you would approve of the lodging I had given the fellow,’ answered Gordon.