"I differ with you," I replied, seizing what I considered a favourable opportunity to lead to the subject of which I most wished to speak. "I agree with Doctor Blunt in thinking they will attack this house certainly to-night, especially as they know there are so many ladies in it."
"Ladies! my dear Sir Richard," exclaimed Doctor Blunt; "there are no ladies here. The only one who was here I sent away this morning."
"Why, I heard that Miss Davenport was here," I exclaimed, with a degree of alarm which all must have perceived. Dr. Blunt gazed upon me, and Billy Byles turned his eyes from him to me with a look of doubt, and, I must say, of great apprehension also.
"Why, did she not escape from Mr. Stringer's with you?" exclaimed the latter at length. "We all heard so."
"She did," I answered; "but I left her for a short time in the wood, while I went to see if the road to Jerusalem was clear. When I came back she was gone, and I was told, shortly after, she was come hither."
"Poor Bessy!" ejaculated Billy Byles, in a tone of deep feeling; and I turned my eyes sternly upon Zed. I could see the old man was shaking in every limb; and the moment my look fell upon him, he dropped upon his knees.
"Pardon, master, pardon!" he cried. "I only told you so to get you away; because you would stop to fight with four men with muskets, and you nobody but yourself. What good could you do Miss Bessy, getting yourself killed?" I could not speak for a moment or two, and I shook violently, under exhaustion, anger, and the sudden and terrible disappointment I had met with. The man's words crushed out all my hopes, revived all my fears and anxieties--nay, almost drove me to despair. My thoughts were all in confusion; my brain seemed to whirl. Where was she? What had become of her? Was she in the hands of those terrible men? or was she wandering about in the woods, likely to perish, without any one to aid or help her? Or, if she had fled at the approach of the party I had seen, was she not sure to fall into the hands of some other band of murderers?
"You are ill, Sir Richard," said Billy Byles. "Get him a glass of brandy. I can easily conceive what you feel. I know if Lou had been left in such a situation, I should be just as bad. Zed, you rascal, you ought to be licked."
"Well, perhaps I ought, Master Byles," said Zed, still upon his knees; "but I did it for the best."
"Damn the best!" exclaimed Byles; "it is always the worst thing in the world."