"For God's sake bring a light!" cried Sholto, "there is black murder done here."
His father ran to the hearth, and, seizing a birchen brand, the end of which was still red, he blew upon it with care and success so that it burst into a white brilliant flame that lighted all the house. Then he, too, entered the room where Sholto, with his sword ready in his hand, was standing over the gasping, dying thing on the bed.
When Malise thrust forward his torch, lo! there, extended on the couch to which they had carried him two hours before, lay the yet twitching body of Cæsar the cripple with his throat well nigh bitten away.
But La Meffraye was nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER XLIX
THE BATTLE WITH THE WERE-WOLVES
"Let us get out of this hellish place," cried James Douglas so soon as he had seen with his eyes that which lay within the bedchamber of the witch woman, and made certain that it was all over with Cæsar Martin.
So the three men issued out into the gloom of the night, and made their way to the stable wherein they had disposed their horses so carefully the night before.