"See, see!" cried Cora, "His antagonist is safe. It is he who has fallen. Run, Toby, run to succor him."
Half fainting with terror and anguish, she would have fallen to the ground had not Mortimer's extended arm caught her in time. He carried her prostrate form to a rocky seat close at hand, on which she rested with her head still lying on his shoulder.
Augustus Horton advanced toward them, and recognized the Octoroon in the moonlight.
"She here!" he cried. "Cora!"
The passionate love of his guilty heart returned as he gazed upon the unconscious girl, and a thrill of jealousy vibrated through the dark recesses of his soul, as he beheld the lovely head of the Octoroon resting upon Mortimer's shoulder.
"I am not surprised, Percy, at your sympathy for Gerald Leslie's daughter," he said, with a sneer; "she is, of course, one of your friends, for she dared to turn me out of her house, dismissing me from her presence as if she had been a queen."
"You!" exclaimed Percy.
"Yes," replied his cousin, "because I had the impertinence to pay her a few idle compliments."
"Augustus Horton," said Mortimer, gravely, "you remember a clause in our contract of partnership, which provides for the agreement being canceled at pleasure, by either of the two partners?"
"I do."