“No; I have not been in any danger; but that cursed caitiff! he has escaped!”
“Oh dear, let him go; so you are sure you are not wounded? You are sure, are you not, dear? You are quite sure neither of those shots struck you?”
“The shots were fired by my own hand, and I’m only sorry they missed their mark, and that diabolical scoundrel got off! He ran like a quarter horse, Devil fly away with him! I would have given a thousand dollars to have him here with my foot on his neck! By all I hold sacred, I would!”
“Oh Alick, do stop thinking about him, and think about yourself! You are so excited I don’t believe you know whether you are wounded or not; you may be bleeding to death now, somewhere under your coat! Oh Alick, dear, come in the house and let me look.”
“It is you who are excited, little goose. You are shaking like an ague! Come in the house yourself, and get warm and quiet,” he said, tucking her under his arm and leading her towards the cottage.
“But Alick, dear, tell me, are you very certain—”
“No, I’m not ‘very’ certain; I’m only just certain that I have not a single scratch. That—that—miserable miscreant was unarmed, I suppose, Satan burn him!”
“Who was he, Alick, do you know?”
“How should I? I only know that he was some felon spy, who has doubtless been hanging about the house, and peeping through the windows o’ nights.”
“A spy, Alick? Only a spy? Why I thought he was a robber and a murderer.”