“Curse me for it, if you will,” said the stranger; “I have well deserved it at your hand.”
“It is fitter for me,” said Jeanie, “to pray to God to forgive you.”
“Do as you will, how you will, or what you will,” he replied, with vehemence; “only promise to obey my directions, and save your sister’s life.”
“I must first know,” said Jeanie, “the means you would have me use in her behalf.”
“No!—you must first swear—solemnly swear, that you will employ them when I make them known to you.”
“Surely, it is needless to swear that I will do all that is lawful to a Christian to save the life of my sister?”
“I will have no reservation!” thundered the stranger; “lawful or unlawful, Christian or heathen, you shall swear to do my hest, and act by my counsel, or—you little know whose wrath you provoke!”
“I will think on what you have said,” said Jeanie, who began to get much alarmed at the frantic vehemence of his manner, and disputed in her own mind, whether she spoke to a maniac, or an apostate spirit incarnate—“I will think on what you say, and let you ken to-morrow.”
“To-morrow!” exclaimed the man with a laugh of scorn—“And where will I be to-morrow?—or, where will you be to-night, unless you swear to walk by my counsel?—there was one accursed deed done at this spot before now; and there shall be another to match it, unless you yield up to my guidance body and soul.”
As he spoke, he offered a pistol at the unfortunate young woman. She neither fled nor fainted, but sunk on her knees, and asked him to spare her life.