He had scarcely spoken the word, when Andrew Gamble rushed suddenly upon his enemy and disarmed him in an instant.
Colonel Blood was thunderstruck.
The action had been so sudden, and the weapon so cleverly wrenched from his grasp, that he stood gaping in surprise.
“Make way there,” said Andrew, flourishing the sword in a malicious manner, much as a rustic would a stout oak cudgel.
Colonel Blood retired a pace or two in evident fear of his brawny antagonist.
“Villain! you quail,” said Andrew, with a savage laugh; “you quail and turn pale before the very man you just now threatened; but fear not, I will not, as you would have done, raise my weapon against a defenceless man. I could take thy life; for, until the unlucky day your shadow darkened our village, I was happy. Happy! aye, as happy as a king. I loved, and was loved in return, but your hellish schemes and flattery have torn her from me; you have poured poison into my loved one’s ear, you have taught her to despise the one who would willingly have laid down his life for her. Listen, villain, your rascality has long been known to me, but chance has never thrown me in your way until now, and here upon the mill bridge, in the stillness of the night, let me tell you that one or both of us must die!”
These words were uttered by Andrew Gamble with a great effort.
His manly breast heaved, and his voice became tremulous as, in a few words, he disclosed the secret, and the cause of his enmity to the stranger.
“Die!” said Blood, calmly, but with a trembling lip.
He seemed charmed and fixed to the spot by the fierce brilliancy of Andrew’s eyes.