"Her eyes, sir!" cried Cecil Stark. "For Heaven's sake have caution! It may mean eternal blindness for her!"
"Not my eyes, dear Cecil—yours, yours! Oh, father, his eyes!"
"Damn everybody's eyes!" roared the master. "There are foul things wriggling here—as we find under the upturned stone. But see 'em we must, to crush 'em!"
Stark interposed fiercely, and the men closed in the dark.
"You shall not, sir; you know not that Grace's eyes depend upon it for their recovery."
"Who the deuce are you? Not Peter——?"
"Cecil Stark. I am here to marry your daughter at Norcot's wish and hope."
"That Yankee again! Light, I say, or I shall go mad!"
The men reeled and crashed against the window.
Stark lost his adversary for a moment, and Malherb, feeling the curtains, tore them down, got to the shutter behind them, and by main force dragged it off its hinges and broke the bolt.