What!--cold again so soon! Distracting! Maddening!
Ah, this was fever--fever of some awful kind--and no help at hand. He could not keep on another hour. Bah!--not half-an-hour.
Merciful heavens, what was this? Lights and the sounds of horses and the shouts of men!
He felt himself knocked down. With a prodigious effort he staggered to his feet and cried out:
"Help!--for heavens sake, help!"
Succour had arrived at the last moment.
CHAPTER XV.
["I SHALL BE READY FOR MY DEATH WHEN THEY ARE READY FOR IT!"]
That evening, when Richard Pringle ascertained Alfred Paulton had left the "Wolfdog Inn," he came to the conclusion that he had hastened home with an account of the day's proceedings. He resolved to go and seek Mrs. Davenport at once.
He had ordered a carriage to be in readiness to take her and him back to London. Since she had finished giving her evidence, she had remained in the private room upstairs. The rain was now falling heavily.