The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Diiic,^ I Death
!
- / Strange Revenge. 659
Whose
death ?
Well did Elspeth know whose dirge Tammas was ring-
ing. | She had not communicated the secret of her herbal
poison without knowing something of the Professor's plans.
They fitted in with her own—both desired revenge. And,
in addition to the satisfaction of inflicting a deadh' injury
upon the family of the man who liad evicted her, had she
not been well [)aid ?
Reasoning thu>, Elspeth rose with a grunt of satisfaction
and peered in a startled wa)- out at door and window, then
cautiously barred the former. Rolling aside a boulder in
the darkest corner of the room, she scraped awa}- the
earth ^ith her fingers, and in a few minutes had clutched,
like a panther at its prey, a small bag, the contents of
which jingled in her nervous grasp.
Ha\-ing once more assured herself that no one was at
the window, the she miser set to counting out the coins one
by one— in all, fift\- bright gold pieces— clinking them
against each other with the glee of a child at pla\-. lC\en
the amusement of the miser, howc\-er, palls.
Ding I
I
Ding
How red the gold kjoked under the rich morning light,
Still the bcli swung.
reflected from the bare pine boards !
She
pausctl ; each
coin reminded her of a drop of blood. Was it rcall\- blood
money ? The question had never before struck her
inorally benumbed brain. Involuntarily she drew back
her hands. It was even so. An unnatural thirst for
revenge had ousted all other considerationsas to whom the
Professor's victim was, the justness of her fate, and the
responsibilit\- she herself had in the matter.
The W^itch's conscience, under that suggestion of blood
made b}- the pure light of heaven, had actually been
awakened from its torpor in this, one of her saner periods.
The bell had, to her conscience-stricken ears, changed the
burden of its story. Whose blood ? every peal seemed to
ask ; and the refrain answered—That woman's who sa\ed
the Witch's life !