Part 21 (2/2)
Make her a fire, that she may have supper ready for the captain when he comes,” coaxed Gentiliska.
”Just so, Princess,” agreed the robber, who immediately confiscated another shutter, and carried it off into the adjoining back room to kindle the kitchen fire.
”You were wrong to leave us! You got into trouble immediately! You would have been in worse by this time, if we had not rescued you! Don't you know, when the laws are down on you, your only safety is with the outlaws?” inquired Gentiliska, as soon as she found herself alone with her guest.
”I don't know. I don't care. It is all one to me now. I only wish to die. If it were not a sin, I would die by suicide,” answered Sybil with the dreary calmness of despair.
”'Die by suicide!' Die by a fiddlestick's end! You to talk so! And you not twenty years old yet! Bos.h.!.+ cut the law that persecutes you and come with us merry outlaws who protect you. And whatever you do, don't run away from us again! You got us into awful trouble and danger and loss when you ran away the last time; did you know it?”
”No,” sighed Sybil, wearily.
”Well, then, you did; and I'll tell you how it all happened: the secret of your abode at Pendleton Park was known to too many people. It couldn't possibly be kept forever by all. It is a wonder that it was kept so long, by any. They kept it only until they thought you were safe from pursuit and arrest. Then some of Captain Pendleton's people--it is not known whom--let it leak out until it got to the ears of the authorities, who set inquiries on foot; and then the whole thing was discovered, and as usual misinterpreted and misrepresented. You got the credit of voluntarily consorting with us, and of purposely blowing up the old Haunted Chapel. And the new warrants that were issued for your arrest charged you with that crime also.”
”Good Heaven!” exclaimed Sybil, forgetting all her indifference; ”what will they not heap upon my head next? I will not rest under this imputation! I will not.”
”Neither would I, if I were you--that is, if I could help it,” said the girl, sarcastically.
But Sybil sat with her thin hands clasped tightly together, her deathly white face rigid as marble, and her large, dilated eyes staring into the fire heedless of the strange girl's irony.
”But now I must tell you how all this hurt us. In the first place, when your flight from the cavern was discovered, we felt sorry only on your account, because you ran into imminent danger of arrest. We had no idea then that your arrest would lead to the discovery of our retreat; but it did. When _our_ detectives brought in the news of the warrants that were out against you, they also warned us that the authorities had the clue to our caverns, and that there was no time to be lost in making our escape.”
With her hands still closely clasped together, with her pallid features still set as in death, and with her staring eyes still fixed upon the fire, Sybil sat, heedless of all that she heard.
The girl continued her story.
”We let no time be lost. We gathered up the most valuable and portable of our effects, and that same night evacuated our cavern and dispersed our band; taking care to appoint a distant place of rendezvous. Satan watched the road, riding frequently to the way-side inns to try to discover the coach by which you would be brought back. He was at Upton this evening, when the stage stopped to change horses. He recognized you, and immediately mounted, put spurs to his fast horse and rode as for life and death to the rendezvous of his band, and got them into their saddles to intercept the stage-coach. He also gave orders that we should come on to this deserted house, which he had discovered in the course of his rides, and which he supposes will be a safe retreat for the present. That is all I have to tell you, and I reckon you know all the rest,” concluded Gentiliska.
But still Sybil sat in the same att.i.tude of deep despair, regardless of all that was said to her.
While Gentiliska's tongue was running, her hands were also busy. She had prepared a cordial of spiced and sweetened port wine, and had set it in a saucepan over the fire to heat. And now she poured it out into a silver mug and handed it to Sybil, saying:
”Come, drink: this will warm and strengthen you. You look like death, but you must not die yet. You must drink, and live.”
”Yes, I must live!” said Sybil. ”I must live to throw off this horrible imputation from the fame of my father's daughter.”
And she took the goblet and drank the cordial.
And soon a new expression pa.s.sed into her face; the fixed despair rose into a settled determination, a firm, active resolution.
”You look as if you were going to do something. What is it?” inquired Gentiliska.
”I am going to give myself up! I am guiltless, and I will not longer act the part of a guilty person!” said Sybil, firmly.
”Your misfortunes have turned your head. You are as mad as a March hare!” exclaimed Gentiliska, in consternation.
”No, I am not mad. On the contrary, it seems to me that I have _been_ mad, or I never could have borne the fugitive life that I have been leading for the last two months! I will bear it no longer. I will give myself up to trial, come what will of it. I would even rather die a guiltless death than lead an outlaw's life! I will give myself up!”
”After all the pains we have taken, and risks we have run, to rescue you?” exclaimed Gentiliska, in dismay.
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