The Secret Shot; Or, The Rivals Of Misty Mount — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

THE VOICE “T see but one thing, and that is my eld schoolmate weltering in his blood. We were once good friends. Godrest him! He was a gallant fellow!’ (A genuine emotion worked in the young Tory’s face, and his voice was broken as he paid this. tribute to his playmate’s memory. “ Nonsense!’ said the sterner | father. “Do you not see that Ida becomes sole heiress of Misty Mount ?” “Much good it will do me—a man whom she hates!” was the bitter rejoinder. - The old man bit his lips. At length he said with a sneer: “ Certainly the good accruing to you there- from will not be great, if you give it up like a coward.” “ Give what up ” 6 “Your suit for the heiress of Misty Mount.” “Ts it not hopeless?” moaned Heartstead, despairingly. “Yes, for a hopeless man. Be of good heart—be resolved, and she shalk yet be yours” “ How ?” “By any means—by force, if necessary. Cornwallis is advyancing—the rebels flying. You can raise a dozen friends, even here, in the valley, to carry off the beauty,” “That would be gaining her love with a vengeance.” “Pshaw! Think of the property!” “Damn the property!’ cried the young man, fiercely, his dark features lighting up with scorn. “ You may have the property ; I want the heart!” — “Hal! ha! ha!’ laughed a strange laugh from the passage-way outside the bolted door; “Ha! ha! ha! Azad what tf she loves another, my brave Tory !” “Tt’s that infernal jade; Judith!” cried the young man, rushing to the door with ungovernable fury; but before he could open it the laugh was heard running away through the distant passages, “Don’t put yourself out of humor. for the quadroon,” said the old man, soothingly. be coms her suggestion is worth consider- ing. He said no more, for he’ saw that Ju- dith’s taunt had set the young man think- ing; and he resolved to let the yenom have time to work. In truth, a black, anxious look rested up- on the handsome but sinister features of Heartstead Gleason, as he paced the room, with folded arms, and his chin upon his WITHOUT. 15 breast. That startling sentence, “ And whas tf she loves another /” rung in his ears with fearful emphasis. The fiend was at work in his breast. Presently his. brow cleared slightly. “Tt is impossible!” he said. “I know the valley by heart; and there is not a man in it for whom she cares a straw.” “Wa! ha! ha!” laughed that wild laugh again, from the passage without. “ But Oleaveland, Colonel Cleaveland /” “Hag! slave! but this-time you shall not escape me!” roared Heartstead, tearing open the door, and springing into the hall. No one was to be seen. The voice might as well have been bodiless, for aught he could discern. | “ Pshaw! be calm!” said the father’s soothing voice, once more, as the other closed and locked the door. Then the old man was again quiet; for there was new venom to be left to work its way, as the young man resumed his moody, arm-folded pacing, with that last sentence— “But Cleaveland, Colonel Cleaveland /”—~ hissing through his brain like the tongue ef an angry cobra. Presently he paused at the open window, and looked out into the night. “Why, what is this?” he exclaimed, “what a sudden storm! ‘The earth is as black as Erebus !’ The old man also approached the windew and glanced out. “ Come, my son, you had better get some sleep,” said he. “ You are anxious — worn out.” So saying, he took the la and led Heartstead away. to his chamber. Poor ‘fellow! The moon was beaming brightly and peacefully over the whole land- scape. The only storm was that which raged within his own bosom and brain. CHAPTER VY. Hope and Despair. I love thee, lady! My bosom bounds beneath thy sm1ic As doth the sca unto the moon his mighty migtress! Looking up to Wer. and procs mie — y om Lovely, lovely, lovely! Lady of ‘ihe Heavens !”" , = ; Festes Two weeks had passed at Misty Mount since, the lamentable incident with which our second chapter closed; and Colonel Cleayeland had been a frequent visitor at the mansion. YValleyton, where he was posted, was so very near; and. then the > oO Comichboo! KS = ® » .