“Or he may have gone back for help,” said Norman. “We must ride on.”
“Won’t you tell me something about—about Lilias?” said Esmeralda in a low and faltering voice.
“Lilias is quite well,” said Norman, with sudden color. “But it is about Trafford I want to tell you.”
“Trafford!”
Her voice was scarcely audible, and it quivered as it spoke the beloved name.
“Yes,” he said. “But I will not tell you any more until you are quite safe, and have rested. You are too overdone and exhausted now. But, Esmeralda, it will all come right.” He laid his hand upon hers. “How glad they will be to see you at the camp! I can’t tell you the state they were in until Varley and I found that scoundrel’s note.”
“What note?” asked Esmeralda.
“The note saying that he held you to ransom, and that he would give you up on payment of two hundred pounds. ‘The fool!’ as Taffy said; ‘we would have given him two thousand, twenty thousand!’ and he laughed. ‘Three Star would willingly pay every penny it possessed to recover its Esmeralda.’”
“I didn’t know that he had made that offer,” said Esmeralda. “Then I need not have escaped, if I had known it; and need not have frightened that poor woman out of her wits. I had only to wait where I was.”
“Yes,” said Norman. “But you’ve got the better of them. Varley will have had his ride for nothing.”