"Take your lover!" he cried, and before the terror-stricken spectators could move, he had opened the door and disappeared.
[CHAPTER XX]
WHAT TERA KNEW
Ill news travels fast. Slade and his wife brought the tragic tidings to Grimleigh that night, and by morning the whole town was in possession of a distorted version of the facts. The milkman reported his own particular rendering of the affair to Miss Arnott's servant, who in her turn informed her mistress. Miss Arnott, feeling that the minister should be notified, put on her hat and called on him. She was shown into the dining-room, and found Johnson making a hurried breakfast, preparatory to departing for Bethdagon. Carwell had sent a special messenger to bring him up.
"I know all about it. Miss Arnott," he said, when the lady entered. "It is very terrible. But I am glad to say that there is every chance of Mr. Mayne's recovery."
"I thought he was dying."
"No. Brother Carwell's messenger informs me that Lee's knife pierced no vital part. The man will recover. Let us hope that he will repent of his sins, and lead a new life."
"Amen to that," said Miss Arnott, softly; "and the gipsy?"
"He is still at large. It will not be easy for the police to catch Pharaoh, The man knows the country as I know this room."
"I hope they won't catch him," cried Miss Arnott, with a defiant look; "wicked as Lee has been, Mr. Mayne is worse. Pharaoh had great provocation to kill him. 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' Mr. Johnson. If Mr. Mayne murdered this unhappy girl whom he made his wife, it is right that he should suffer."