Wayne of Cranshaw put a kindly hand on him. "Take heart, lad," he muttered. "The next blow shall be thine, and the next after that—and there's no man in Marshcotes or Ling Crag that dares call thee coward."
"But all may name me fool," finished the lad quietly;—"Take Nell home, Rolf. She'll suffer thy company better than mine just now."
But Nell was strung to the storm's pitch still. "'Tis not done yet!" she cried. "I thought that one life would pay—and what is Dick Ratcliffe now? Is that thankless lump of clay to square the reckoning, dross for gold? Nay, there is more to be done. Listen, Rolf! We will send round the feud-call, and rouse our kinsfolk."
"Ay, will we—but not to-night, dear lass."
"To-night! Rolf! It must be to-night. No quarter said father with his last breath, and God forgive me if I rest before the whole tale is told."
"Nay! 'Tis home and a quiet pillow for thee. Come, Nell! Thou know'st thy strength will scarce carry thee to Marsh."
Still she refused, though she was shivering as with ague. "No quarter. Wilt not swear it, Rolf?"
"I swear it here, Nell, by any vow that binds a man—and by the same token I swear to carry thee to-night by force to Marsh, if so thou wilt not come of thy own free will. Are the Ratcliffes salt-and-snow, that they should melt away before the dawn?"
"Wilt not help me, Ned?" broke in Mistress Wayne. Her baby-voice was soft and pleading as she turned to her step-son. "The stain is spreading—I dare not let it run to the edge—there is a little crack down one side of the stone, and the blood will never be wiped off if once it drips on to the vault-floor."
The lad did not answer Mistress Wayne's wanderings this time; and his sister, glancing round at him with the old impulse of resentment, saw that Shameless Wayne was sobbing as men sob once only in their learning of life's lesson. Over-strained Nell was already, and the fierceness died clean out of her. She crept to her brother's side, and pulled his hands down from before his face, and "Ned," said she, "would God I could forgive thee."