After he had paced thus for a time, he heard steps above him, and instantly he called out for aid. He called again and again, but the inhuman ear of old Gunwagner was deaf to his imploring cries.
The sound of footsteps was soon lost, and all was still save the gnawing of the rats. Herbert listened quietly for a time, to study their movements. Soon he heard them scampering about in all parts of the cellar. From the noise they made he judged them to be very large; and they were certainly bold, for now they were running about in contemptuous disregard of young Randolph’s presence. Occasionally he would yell at them, and kick vigorously upon the framework of his cell. By this means he kept them at a somewhat respectful distance.
And now his mind reverted again to the cause of his imprisonment. As the long, weary hours dragged by, he studied the matter with the utmost care, giving painstaking thought to the slightest details and the most trivial acts. His points were, consequently, well made. They were reasonable, logical, probable. The scheme broadened as he progressed. What he had supposed to be a mere matter of revenge now loomed up clearly and distinctly before him as a bold plot against himself—a piece of outrageous villainy that fairly appalled him.
He saw Felix Mortimer in his place in the bank; saw himself looked upon by Mr. Goldwin with suspicion and disgust. And this feeling, he knew, would extend to his daughter—bright, winsome Ray.
It was odd that Herbert should think of her in this connection, while in such mental agony. He had seen her but once, and then only for a minute. True, she was wonderfully pretty, and her manner was irresistibly attractive, but young Randolph was of a serious turn of mind. No, he was not one to become infatuated with any girl, however charming; he never had been, and, to use his own language, he did not propose to become so. But he could not help thinking of Ray in connection with this matter. He recalled how her sunny presence lighted up the bank that very afternoon, and in imagination he saw her bright, mischievous blue eyes, brimful of fun and merriment, as he handed her into her carriage.
“She did look sweet, confounded if she didn’t,” said Herbert to himself, forgetting for the time his sorrow; “sweet and pretty as a peach, and her cheeks had the same rich, delicate tint. Her hair—— Great Scott!” ejaculated young Randolph, suddenly awaking to what he had been saying. “Another evidence of my being a fool. I’d better have stayed on the farm,” he continued, more or less severely.
young randolph at last falls asleep exhausted.
“Well, I’m a prisoner,” he said, sadly, after a thoughtful pause. “It doesn’t matter much what I think or say. But, somehow or other, I wish I had never seen her,” he continued, meditatively. “Now she will think of me only with contempt, just as her father will. Of course she will; it would be only natural.”