Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

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192 WILLY BURKE; OR,
neck) with something that appeared to be a large stick,
and he instantly fell ; the assailant ran off down that dark
alley to the right here below, and we hastened to the spot
where Mr. Weimar lay. When we came np he was lying
on his face, and we didn't know it was he till the man
carried him out into the moonlight".
" And were you sufficiently near when it happened to
catch a glimpse of the assailant ? Have you any suspicions
as to who it might be ?" This question Mr.
Talbot addressed to Dawson, and the latter was just an-
swering
" To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Talbot
when Willy Burke interrupted him by saying eagerly
" Why, indeed, sir, we weren't near enough to say
positively who it was ; and if we made a guess at any one
we might be wrong ; so its better for us to tell you what
we know for a certainty. The man (whoever he might
be, sir) was so muffled up, and we were so far oft, that w e
couldn 't venture to say who it was". Dawson looked
askance at Willy, and smiled slightly.
Mr. Talbot looked hard at the animated face of the
speaker, and then he shook his head doubtingly ;
—
"
but he
contented himself with saying, " And yet the boy is
right"; and telling the young men to follow, he hurried
up stairs.
One of Mr. Talbot's little children met him above,
with the glad tidings that Mr. Weimar was not dead.
" Mother says he was only in a swoon, father ; and now
he begins to move".
When Mr. Talbot entered the room, his wife beckoned
him to approach, and told him, in a whisper, that Mr.
Weimar, $ was already showing symptoms of recovery,