He glanced at Marian.
She lay in a little white heap apparently as dead as the one at the foot of the precipice.
Then with flying footsteps he fled down the hill, by the way he had come, nor paused, nor looked back till he reached the spot, some half mile distant, where he had left Hans and the horses.
The valet, spite of all his natural stolid indifference under ordinary circumstances, was startled into an exclamation of wonder and dismay at sight of his master's pallid, terror-stricken countenance.
"Mine Gott! mynheer, vat ish happen you, to see von pig ghost?"
Lyttleton shivered with the thought that he had evoked a ghost that would haunt him all his days.
"Nonsense," he said in a hoarse whisper and glancing fearfully behind him; "there's been an accident; Clendenin has fallen down a precipice and is probably killed, and I may be suspected of having had something to do with it. I must mount and away in haste. I shall take yonder road and travel east. Do you go and settle our bill for board, and follow me with the luggage.
"All haste, we must be miles away from here before the thing is discovered! Fortunately I had expressed my intention of leaving to-day or to-morrow, so that our sudden departure need excite no suspicion.
"Not a word of the accident to any one, remember; be discreet and prompt, and you shall not fail of your reward."
With the last words he vaulted into the saddle, put spurs to his horse and galloped away at the top of his speed.