"Behold!" said Marchdale—"behold!"—"Heaven have mercy upon us!"
"It is as I said; the beams of the moon have revived the vampyre. You perceive now that there can be no doubt."—"Yes, yes, I see him; I see him."
Sir Francis Varney now, as if with a great struggle, rose to his feet, and looked up at the bright moon for some moments with such an air and manner that it would not have required any very great amount of imagination to conceive that he was returning to it some sort of thanksgiving for the good that it had done to him.
He then seemed for some moments in a state of considerable indecision as to which way he should proceed. He turned round several times. Then he advanced a step or two towards the house, but apparently his resolution changed again, and casting his eyes upon the ruins, he at once made towards them.
This was too much for the philosophy as well as for the courage of Tom Eccles. It was all very well to look on at some distance, and observe the wonderful and inexplicable proceedings of the vampyre; but when he showed symptoms of making a nearer acquaintance, it was not to be borne.
"Why, he's coming here," said Tom.—"He seems so indeed," remarked Marchdale.
"Do you mean to stay?"—"I think I shall."
"You do, do you?"—"Yes, I should much like to question him, and as we are two to one I think we really can have nothing to fear."
"Do you? I'm altogether of a different opinion. A man who has more lives than a cat don't much mind at what odds he fights. You may stay if you like."—"You do not mean to say that you will desert me?"
"I don't see a bit how you call it deserting you; if we had come out together on this adventure, I would have stayed it out with you; but as we came separate and independent, we may as well go back so."—"Well, but—"