Part 7 (1/2)

”Yes,” gravely a.s.sented the captain.

”Well, sir, Ma.r.s.e Capping, Nelly do stick to it as she _is_ down there.

And, sir, I shall neber feel satisfied into my own mind, till the men dig away all the rubbish and lay open 'the secrets of that there prisin house.'”

”Joe, it shall be done, if only for the satisfaction of your faithful heart,” said the captain.

”And for Nelly's too, sir. See how she stands and looks up into your face, waiting for you to 'cide, just as if she understood all that I was a axing of you, which of course she do.”

”Not a doubt of it,” a.s.sented the captain.

At that moment the messengers who had been dispatched for shutters and mattresses, returned with the articles, and set them down before Captain Pendleton.

”Now, my men,” said the captain, ”arrange one of the mattresses upon the shutter, and a.s.sist me to lay my wounded friend upon it.”

Ready hands obeyed this direction, and the faintly breathing body of Lyon Berners was laid down in comparative ease.

The same service was performed for poor young Munson, who was badly injured, and also quite unconscious.

”Now, my men, this poor negro has reason to believe that the body of his mistress may be found in the bottom of that vault; I want you therefore to go to work as fast as you can, and remove all the rubbish that has fallen into it, even down to the floor,” was the next order given by the captain.

And the men seized their picks and resumed their digging with renewed energy.

”Joe, stay here by your master and this poor fellow; and occasionally wet their lips with this brandy and water, while I go and see to the clearing out of the vault,” said Captain Pendleton; and leaving Joe in charge of the wounded men, he followed the workmen to the ruins to urge them to the greatest expedition, adding as a reason for haste:

”It is time that Mr. Berners and Munson should be taken to my house, and placed in bed, to receive proper medical attention. But I cannot consent to leave this spot even to attend to them, until I find out whether the body of Mrs. Berners is really under the ruins.”

Thus exhorted, the men worked with tremendous energy, and soon dug away all the pile of rubbish, and laid the depths of the vault open to the torch light. But there was nothing to be seen but the damp and slimy walls and floor, and the little heaps of broken stones and fallen plaster in the corners.

”Not there! Well, then, I didn't know whether I was a-hoping or a fearing to find her there, or whether I'm glad or sorry now at not finding her there,” said Joe, who in his excessive anxiety had at length deserted his post beside the wounded men, and hobbled up to the opened vault.

”You should be glad, for now you have no evidence of her death; but, on the other hand, good reason to hope that she is somewhere alive and well,” said Captain Pendleton.

”That's so too, Marster Capping. But only see what a little story-teller Nelly is!”

”It was her master she scented, and she found him.”

”Yes, but she tried to make me believe as her mistess was down there also. And look how she sticks to the story! There she is down there still running round and round like she was crazy, and a snuffing at all the corners!”

”Never mind Nelly, Joe. Come along now. We must take your master and the other poor fellow on to my house. It should have been done before this.

I am sorry for this delay, which has been so fruitless,” said Captain Pendleton, as he led the way back to the spot where he had left the injured victims of the explosion.

”Marster Capping,” said Joe, as he hobbled after Pendleton, ”I have got two horses tied up there into the woods, ef they haven't been frighted at the blowing up, and done broke loose; and I have got a wagon down by the roadside, if so be as you would like to convey my wounded marster and the t'other gemplan that a way.”

”No, Joe; the jolting of a wagon might be fatal to them in their present condition. They must be carried carefully on shutters. But the wagon will be just the thing to convey the dead bodies to Blackville, where an inquest must be held upon them,” answered the captain.

And he requested some of the men present to go in search of the horses, and to harness them to the wagon for the required services to the dead, while others he detained to help in care of the wounded.