“I say, you have had a splendid sleep,” continued Waller. “Feel better now?”
“Sleep? Better? I don’t know—don’t know. Yes, I do. You came and brought me something to eat, and I have been to sleep and dreaming about—Oh!” he groaned, and, leaning forward and covering his face with his hands, he began to rock himself to and fro as if the mental agony from which he suffered was too hard to bear.
Waller looked on in silence for a few moments, before reaching forward and laying his hand upon the poor fellow’s shoulder, when the touch acted like magic. His hands were caught in those of the fugitive, who rose painfully to his feet and spoke in a low, quick, hurried way.
“Yes,” he said, “I am ready. Take me where you said; but,” he added, glancing sharply round with a wild and fevered look in his eyes, “did the soldiers come, or did I dream it?”
“Dreamt it,” said Waller emphatically.
“Ah!” was sighed. “Am I speaking properly? I—I don’t quite know what I say. It’s my head, I suppose—my head.”
“You are not quite awake,” said Waller encouragingly. “There, come down to the river and bathe your face. It’s getting beautifully cool now; and then we will go gently home through the woods.”
The poor fellow nodded quickly, obeying his companion to the letter, and seeming to trust himself entirely in his hands.
He seemed a little clearer after lying down and bathing his face; but as they walked slowly towards the Manor there were moments when he began to turn dizzy and reeled. But they reached the old Elizabethan house at last, quite in the dusk of evening, and, following out his settled plans, Waller led his companion in through the porch, across the hall, and upstairs, quite unseen, and rather breathless himself, while his companion seemed to have grown calmer. He unlocked the door of his den, threw it open, and closed it upon them with a sigh of relief, as he said,—
“There, sit down in that old chair—gently, for the bottom’s broken. This is my own room.” Then, as the poor fellow sank back heavily in the very ancient chair, one that Waller had rescued from the lumber-room for his own particular use, he said, “I say: I won’t be above a minute. Don’t you stir. I am going downstairs to get a light.”