"Oh, I will show you a better spot, where there is a crevice in which you can place them with perfect safety. Will you walk with me into the ruins?"—"Willingly."
"It's odd enough," remarked Marchdale, after he had shown Tom Eccles where to hide the handkerchiefs, "that you and I should both be here upon so similar an errand."—"I'm very glad of it. It robs the place of its gloom, and makes it ten times more endurable than it otherwise would be. What do you propose to do if you see the vampyre?"
"I shall try a pistol bullet on him. You say you are armed?"—"Yes."
"With pistols?"—"One. Here it is."
"A huge weapon; loaded well, of course?"—"Oh, yes, I can depend upon it; but I did not intend to use it, unless assailed."
"'Tis well. What is that?"—"What—what?"
"Don't you see anything there? Come farther back. Look—look. At the corner of that wall there I am certain there is the flutter of a human garment."—"There is—there is."
"Hush! Keep close. It must be the vampyre."—"Give me my pistol. What are you doing with it?"
"Only ramming down the charge more firmly for you. Take it. If that be Varney the vampyre, I shall challenge him to surrender the moment he appears; and if he does not, I will fire upon him, and do you do so likewise."—"Well, I—I don't know."
"You have scruples?"—"I certainly have."