Was I the prey of some
nightmare? I protest to you, Surry, I thought for a moment that I was
dreaming all this. A tremor ran through my frame; I placed my hand upon
my heart, which felt icy cold--then suddenly my self-possession and
coolness seemed to return to me as by magic.
"'Explain your words,' I said, coldly, 'there is some mystery in them
which I do not understand. Speak, and speak plainly.'
"'I will do so, sir,' he replied, in the same trembling voice.
"And going to the door of the apartment, he bent down and placed his
ear at the key-hole. He remained in this attitude for a moment without
moving. Then rising, he went to the window, and drawing aside the
curtains, looked out on the chill moonlit expanse. This second
examination seemed to satisfy him. At the same instant a light
step--the step of madam--was heard crossing the floor of the apartment,
above our heads; and this evidently banished Nighthawk's last fears.
"He returned quickly to the seat where I was sitting; looked at me for
some minutes with eyes full of fear, affection, sympathy, fright, and
said in a voice so low, that it scarce rose above a whisper:--
"'We are alone, sir, and I can speak without being overheard by these
devils who have betrayed and are about to murder you! Do not interrupt
me sir!--the time is short!--you must know every thing at once, in an
hour it would be too late! The man calling himself Mortimer is probably
within a hundred yards of us at this moment.
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