CHAPTER XXXIII.
A SECOND ATTEMPT.
Half dazed with the strange occurrences of the day, Leonard Yorke rode like a madman back to Yorke Towers to procure assistance and bring poor Will Venners to its hospitable shelter. Galloping up the avenue which led to the house, Leonard threw his bridle to the servant who met him there, and springing from the horse, ordered that the low phaeton be brought around at once to convey Captain Venners to York Towers, with a hurried explanation of the finding of the poor fellow, badly hurt, in the swamp a half mile away.
While the man hastened away to obey his commands, Leonard ran into the house. He was met in the hall by Hilda. Her face wore a look of triumph; her glorious dark eyes sparkled; she was wondrously beautiful—the subtle, seductive beauty of a sleek tigress of the jungle, with its shining eyes and satiny skin; its cruel claws hidden by the velvety skin, but there, all the same, and ready for use at the least provocation.
Hilda was perfectly happy, for she saw that Leonard was returning alone. Violet had not been found, therefore Leonard must still believe her false. False she must be, or she would never have gone away from Yorke Towers as she had done.
But, all the same, Hilda knew that Violet had not eloped with Will Venners. She laid one white hand lightly upon Leonard’s arm, and lifted her lovely dark eyes to his pale, anxious face.
“Dear Leonard,” she began in a soft, sweet, purring voice, the little hand grasping his coat-sleeve tighter, “I am so sorry—so sorry! She is my cousin, and I am deeply attached to her; but I can not close my eyes to her glaring faults, her many imperfections. And now this fearful disgrace! Poor, misguided Violet! she has gone away with handsome Will Venners, and we shall never see her again.”
With an impatient movement which he could not repress, Leonard released the clinging hand. He was thoroughly aroused, and had no patience with Hilda’s nonsense now.
“You are mistaken, Miss Rutledge,” he said, sternly. “Violet may have faults—we are all of us only human, and liable to err—but if she has, I have never perceived them. To me she is blameless—and she has not eloped with Will Venners or any other man. She has been abducted; and Will Venners lies down in the swamp below Yorke Towers, badly wounded—perhaps dying.”
A low cry fell upon the silence, and turning swiftly, Leonard saw coming down the stairs, just at his side, Jessie Glyndon, pale as death, and looking as though she had received her death-blow. Her eyes were dark as night, and dilated wildly, her hands were tightly clasped together, and she was trembling like an aspen.