The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. 26 “Then tell me nothing; I have promised not to part with this, and [ will not.” ‘‘Confound your obstinacy! you will just give me the trouble of forcing it from your neck.” . ‘‘ You dare not do so,” cried Mabel; “I tell you again and again you shall not have it. Help! help!” ‘‘ Ay, you may call, your voice won’t carry to that house yonder. Give me the cross, I say.” ‘‘No, no; spare me that; you shall have more mouey to- morrow; I will bring you its full value in gold, if you will name the sum.” * You will?” “‘T will; but this I cannot, dare not, part with. You would not murder me for what to you can possess no value but its worth in money ?” ‘‘Murder! I want only to look at it, if you will keep your word about bringing me the money to-morrow. The cross is worth fifty pounds.” ‘‘T have not such a sum. Good God! where am I to get fifty pounds? It is not possible, it is not possible!” ‘*Then must [ have the bauble.” At this nioment, from some part of the plantation, there came the sudden and sharp report of a gun, and the stranger gave so alarmed a start, that Mabel seized the opportunity, and, opening the swinging gate, she darted through it. Recovering, then, from his momentary surprise almost immediately, he, with a furious bound, and an oath, darted after; but scarcely had he got half a dozen yards from the swinging gate, when a large ound sprung into the middle of the pathway between him and Mabel. At so great a speed, however, was he coming on after the flying girl, that he could not stop himself till he was right upon the dog, who took a tolerable mouthful out of the fellow’s leg. Rage, although excessive, by no means deprived the beg- gar of sufficient reason to make him understand the propriety of falling back out of range of the dog’s teeth, and he accordingly placed himself on the other side of the gate with a quickness that would have done credit to a harlequin. Weil did Mabel know that she was safe the moment she saw the noble hound, and she immediately turned with a flushed face and confronted the fellow, and as she rested her hand upon the head of the hound, said: ‘“* If C were as full of the passion of resentment as you are of wickedness, I could, by a word, set this creature on you, and perhaps your life would fall a sacrifice to your wish to do a deed of violence. You are athief. You would have robbed me, and because you thought yourself the stronger, you would not have cared what degree of violence was necessary to deprive me of the trinket which I told you I set the most intrinsic value upon.’ ‘*‘ Ah, but remember I have something to tell you about your real name and your family, you know,” “TI will hear nothing—I will hear nothing,” said Mabel, ‘from such a man as you are,” comicbooks. com