“Quick, quick!” cried Gray, and he ascended the ladder with nervous trepidation, followed slowly by the afflicted and terrified Ada. The evening was fast approaching as they gained the room above, and Jacob Gray, seizing Ada by the wrist, led her to the outer door of the old house in which they had lived so long.
He turned upon the threshold, and holding up his hand, cried,—
“My curse be upon this habitation. Had I the means at hand—yet stay one moment, Ada.”
He knelt on the step, and struck a light with materials he always carried about him.
Dragging Ada again into the house, he opened the door of a room on the ground floor, on which was a quantity of littered straw and baskets. Throwing the light among the inflammable material, he ground through his set teeth,—
“Burn, burn! And may not one brick stand upon another of this hateful place.”
He then dragged Ada from the house, and took his course along the fields at a rapid pace.
CHAPTER L.
The Ruin at Night.—The Fire.—Gray’s Behaviour.—A Challenge.—Old Westminster Again.
Ada made no remark upon these proceedings of Jacob Gray. She had made up her mind to a particular course of action. She had wound up her feelings and her courage to a certain pitch and she resolved not to say another word to Jacob Gray, until she had an opportunity of acting, as she had now considered it her sacred duty to act.