José — page 283: what you’re looking at

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

276 JOSE. “Mary Brown, sir,” replied the overseer, while he scrutinized the face of his interrogator with in-— creased interest. When the latter stepped back, however, he bowed with an acknowledging incline of the head, and silently proceeded to the death- chamber. Baumann, pale with suppressed emo- tions, had turned his face to his friend, who ex- tended his hand with a congratulatory smile. “Tt is she, indeed. Well, the aimless way in which we traveled about could scarcely have re- sulted otherwise—why, then, this look of agony?” he asked. “We are now thoroughly acquainted with our task for the days to come, and I am in favor of not stirring from the spot until we have gained our object—” “For Heaven’s sake, you forget that this house contains the body of her dead husband, and that I am positively ignorant of how matters stand here,” cried Baumann, with difficulty restraining his voice. “Come away, this is the least desirable place for us,” Green rejoined, ttrusting his arm in that of his friend. “The difficulties I shall have to surmount are greatly less defined to me than those that con- front you. You have only to contend with a dead man—lI, on the contrary, with a live one, and yet, since you have found your affinity, I feel greatly encouraged. Let us see what has become of Bob, who is the best person in the world to explain matters.” They descended the stairway and entered the yard where the domestics were gathered in scattered groups. The wagon in which the wounded had been transported was empty, and a white shroud had been spread over the dead. However, the friends had scarcely gone twenty paces when Bob Eomichooks sco m