"But why the deuce didn't she cry out when she heard me in this room?" queried Bullcott, partly addressing the silent Amabel.
"For the rather poor reason," answered Dick, "that in such a case, as I promised her when I heard you coming, I should have killed, not her, but you! And now, Squire, you see your wife's reputation remains untarnished; she is safe out of my hands, and if she can but make good her escape from yours, she ought to be happy."
"Escape from me? That won't she! She'd run away, would she? Well, now she'll run back, and stay back! D'ye hear, woman? Oh, some one shall pay for all this, that shall she! I'll show—"
But the Squire showed only a sudden pallor and shakiness, for again was heard in the corridor the wrathful voice of Sir Hilary Englefield, this time coupled with the excited tones of his sister, who was screaming out dissuasions.
"So 'twas you, Bullcott, hired the rogues to carry off my sister!" roared the baronet, as he entered, whip in one hand, in the other a pistol. "I thank God she told me the name before I or you was out of the town! So you'd go to Whitchurch after her, would you? Well, you'll go, not after her, but alone; and not to Whitchurch, but to hell; you filthy old chaser of women! And you shall go with a sore skin, moreover!"
Whereat the furious fox-hunter began to belabor the squire with the whip, all the witnesses giving him plenty of room. Bullcott bellowed, whimpered, and cowered, leading the agile baronet a chase around furniture and over it, deterred from a bolt by the presence of Miss Englefield's stout man-servant in the corridor doorway. Driven at last to bay, his face and hands covered with welts, the Squire made a desperate bound and grasped the whip, wrenched it from the baronet's hand, and raised it to strike. As the blow was falling, Sir Hilary fired the pistol. Bullcott fell, an inert mass.
Sir Hilary conferred hastily with Dick, then led away his sister, saw her and her servants started homeward, and took horse by the Winchester road for the seaport of Portsmouth. Dick silently led the dazed Amabel to her own chamber, whence she and Miss Thorpe departed quietly on their way to Oxfordshire while Bullcott's servants were busy with preparations for the care of the Squire's body. Dick then immediately packed up his and Lord George's portmanteaus, and took post-chaise for London as soon as Lord George and Wilkins returned to the inn, a large gratuity from Dick to the landlord enabling these four hasty departures to be made before the town authorities were notified of the killing. The post-chaise left Speenhamland in the track of Miss Englefield's coach and Miss Thorpe's, but did not overtake either, all three parties making the utmost speed. Their three ways diverged at Reading, where Dick and Lord George made a brief stop in the afternoon, to break their long fast.
"Egad," quoth Lord George, to whom Dick had recounted all the morning's incidents, "'twas a merry breakfast party we had at the Pelican in honor of Sir Hilary's arrival!"
Dick heaved a sigh, eloquent of more than one regret, and was silent.