"I am going—I am going."
Todd felt awed by her manner. He cowered before the look that, full of horror, she bent upon him, and he crept towards the cottage door. But the dread that some of his enemies might be lurking about the spot detained him.
"Tell me," he said, "oh! tell me truly—are they gone?"
"Wait," she said, "and I will see again."
She took the child in her arms, and left the cottage. Todd found, now that the child was no longer in his power as a kind of hostage for the faith of the mother, that he had trusted her too far; but it was too late, now, for him to recede from the position in which he had placed himself, and with all his terror, he had no resource but to calmly—calmly as he could—wait her return.
She came back again in a few moments.
"You can go with safety. They are all away."
"I will trust you, and take your word for it," said Todd. "I thank you for the service you have rendered to me, and I am not ungrateful. Accept of this in remembrance of me, and of this day's adventure."
He took from his pocket a splendid gold watch and laid it upon the table, in the outer room, but with vehemence, the woman cried—
"No—no! Take it up, I will not have it. Take it up, or even now I will dare everything and call for help. I will take nothing from your blood-stained hands. Take up the watch, or I will destroy it."