Skilligalee uttered these words in his usually jocular manner; for he was anxious to reassure his female companion, who still laboured under an excess of terror that seemed ready to prostrate all her energies.
"Yes—let us leave this fearful den," said Markham: "to me it appears replete with horrors of all kinds."
Skilligalee now took the candle and led the way, still supporting Margaret Flathers on his arm.
They all three effected their egress from the palace without any obstacle.
When they were safe in the alley with which the back gate communicated, Markham said to Skilligalee, "From what I can understand, you have fled from the gipsies in order to return and liberate your companion from the dungeon where we found her."
"That is precisely what I did," answered Skilligalee. "I gave them the slip when they had set up their tents in the field near the Penitentiary."
"It is probable that you are not too well provided with pecuniary resources," said Richard: "the contents of my purse are at your service."
"Thank you kindly, sir—very kindly," returned Skilligalee. "I am not in want of such assistance."
Markham vainly pressed his offer: it was declined with many expressions of gratitude. The truth was that Skilligalee had the greater portion of his share of Margaret's gold still remaining; and there was something so generous and so noble in the manner of Richard Markham, that he could not find it in his heart to impose upon him by taking a sum of which he did not stand in immediate need.
"At all events, let me advise you to avoid such companions as those with whom you appear to have been allied," observed Richard, "and who are cruel enough to immure a female in a subterranean dungeon."