"I cannot!"
"Then at least take a guard with you."
"It is impossible, Mr. Atkins!"
"Well, then, you rush onto your own destruction," cried Atkins excitedly. "I have done my duty; now the consequences be upon your own head!"
"Compose yourself," returned Walter, with a gesture of impatience. "Your apprehensions are unfounded. I tell you it is impossible for any one who does not know the password to go from here to the mountains. We have a triple line of outposts."
These words failed to pacify Atkins. "You do not know Alison!" he said. "He is an uncontrollable nature whom circumstances and education have subdued only to outward seeming in making him simply a man of business. If such a nature once bursts its long accustomed barriers, it passes all bounds. In his present mood he is capable of anything."
"But not of murder!" said Walter calmly.
"But you have denied him the one legitimate way of revenge, and he will hardly concern himself with ideal conceptions of right and wrong. Be on your guard, Lieutenant Fernow; I cannot vouch for him."
"I have a better opinion of Mr. Alison than you have," returned Walter. "He may hate me to death, but I do not think him capable of the crime you have hinted at. Tell him"--here a peculiar, almost ghastly smile passed over the melancholy face of the young officer--"tell him he need not take my life, his wish may be fulfilled without it. I must go, Mr. Atkins--give my regards to Miss Forest, and--farewell?"
Hastily leaving the room he went to his own chamber.