The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

A Strange Revenge. 729
think I am ; but I'm wise the nicht, for I want tae save her
life, seein' she saved mine. She needna hae fashed, for
— ;
r'll be drooned after a', but she saved it an' that's enough.
You love her— ye start, but well I jalouse yer secret
wha'll cheat the witch ? Yet ye'll no let me save her
life. Let me save her— Let me save her!" she cried,
changing her tone from threat to entreaty.
" Save the dead ! Woman, beldame, daughter of the
very devil as you are, can you not even respect the dead
• and our sorrow," said David with clenched hands. "You
•do nothing but curse, curse! Go, and curse on to your
heart's content, but for God's sake leave us to our grief in
peace, or I'll have you dragged forth and put in a strait-
jacket. You've played a diabolical trick upon me to-night
go, or, crazy as you are, I'll make you suffer for it."
" Hoo bonnie she is," muttered Elspeth, unheeding
David's hot words.
David looked round ; and no sooner did so than he
staggered back, his eyes transfixed on Flora's body—the
very embodiment of one who looks upon a manifestation
of the unseen world. Then his terrified look softened, and
the suggestion of a happy smile stole upon him.
" Yes !" was all he said ; and he spoke in a soft, extatic
whisper, while his eyes turned slowly from the bed as if
following an indefinite something. " Yes !" he repeated,
seeming to answer a question. Then he moved towards the
door like one in a dream, while his face brightened up by
the vision it furnished. At the threshold he paused, and
his look was one of rapture ;
he turned down the dark passage.
"John !
John
then, with a deep drawn sigh,
!" he called faintly ; but John had long
•ago reached his room, where, head buried in the bed clothes,
•he lay quaking with terror.
[to be continued.]