Part 75 (1/2)
”Ranulph,” gasped Eleanor, ”life without you were valueless.
Advance--avenge me!”
Ranulph still hesitated. He could not, by any act of his own, compromise Eleanor's safety.
Luke saw his advantage, and was not slow to profit by it. ”You seal her destruction if you stir,” said he.
”Villain,” returned Ranulph, between his ground teeth, and with difficulty commanding sufficient coolness to speak with deliberation, ”you perceive your power. Injure her, and nothing earthly shall protect you. Free her, and take your life and liberty; nay, reward if you will.
You cannot otherwise escape me.”
”Escape you!” laughed Luke, disdainfully. ”Stand aside, and let me pa.s.s.
Beware,” added he, sternly, ”how you oppose me. I would not have a brother's blood upon my soul.”
”Nor I,” cried Ranulph; ”but you pa.s.s not.” And he placed himself full in Luke's path.
Luke, however, steadily moved forward, holding Eleanor between himself and Ranulph, so as to s.h.i.+eld his own person; but, fancying he saw an opportunity of dealing a blow without injury to his mistress, the latter was about to hazard the thrust, when his arms were seized behind, and he was rendered powerless.
”Lost, lost,” groaned he; ”she is lost to me forever!”
”I fear that's but too true,” said Turpin, for it was the highwayman whose grasp confined Ranulph.
”Must I see her borne away before my eyes?” cried Ranulph. ”Release me--set me free!”
”Quite impossible at present,” returned d.i.c.k. ”Mount and away, Sir Luke,” continued he; ”never mind me. Leave me to s.h.i.+ft for myself.”
”Eleanor!” cried Ranulph, as she pa.s.sed close by his side.
”Ranulph!” shrieked Eleanor, with a loud scream, recalled to consciousness by his voice, ”farewell for ever.”
”Ay, for ever,” responded Luke, triumphantly. ”You meet no more on earth.”
He was about to pa.s.s through the panel, when Eleanor exerted all her remaining strength in a last futile attempt at liberation. In the struggle, a packet fell from Luke's bosom.
Handa.s.sah stooped to pick it up.
”From Sybil!” exclaimed she, glancing at the superscription.
”Remember my promise to old Barbara,” roared d.i.c.k, who had some curiosity, as the reader knows, to learn what the package contained.
”The time is arrived. Eleanor is in your power--in your presence.”
”Give me the packet,” said Luke, resigning Eleanor for the instant to Handa.s.sah's custody--”take the steel, and grasp her firmly.”
Handa.s.sah, who, though slight of figure, was of singular personal strength, twined her arms about Miss Mowbray in such a manner as to preclude all possibility of motion.
Luke tore open the package. It was a box carefully enclosed in several folds of linen, and lastly within a sheet of paper, on which were inscribed these words:
THE DOWER OF SYBIL
Hastily, and with much curiosity, Luke raised the lid of the box. It contained one long silken tress of blackest hair enviously braided. It was Sybil's. His first impulse was to cast it from him; his next, reproachfully to raise it to his lips. He started as if a snake had stung him.