After a pause Wildfire Ned said, calmly and slowly—
“Redgill, you are not a man; you are a coward, a snake in the grass; you leave a poisonous slime wherever you go. Bloody deeds follow in your wake wherever you tread! There is no love lost between us, ’tis true; but you are a mischief-maker; a deceiver; I could say more perhaps.”
“Say on,” said Redgill, turning pale.
“Murderer is marked on your face, Phillip Redgill,” said Ned, sternly. “Nay, do not tremble, for I know nought of what you have done; but I suspect and despise you, leaving it in the hands of heaven one day to disclose what you are. You need not fear that I shall stand in your path to wealth or fame. Trust me, I have too much heart and spirit to eat the bread of charity longer at Sir Richard’s table; but, ere I leave, remember these my words, Redgill,” he said, after a solemn pause, “you will one day grace a gibbet; rogue, vagabond, and murderer is deeply written on your countenance. You cannot, you dare not look an honest lad openly in the face. Your own cowardly heart tells you I speak the truth; and, were it not for the disgrace to good Sir Richard, I could slay you as you sit, and think, aye, know that I had done right in the sight of man and heaven. Sir Richard, I now leave the Hall, my everlasting love is yours. Upon the wide world I go to seek my fortune; but beware of that man’s evil eye. Sir Richard, shun him like a snake. Phillip Redgill, we shall meet again.”
“We will,” was the bitter answer.
In an instant Wildfire Ned left the room.
The village clock tolled the hour of midnight.
He left Darlington Hall, and perhaps for ever!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Illustration in No. 2.