For whose sake?: A sequel to "Why did he wed her?"Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
For whose sake?: A sequel to "Why did he wed her?"
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Bigamy -- Fiction; England -- Fiction; Impostors and imposture -- Fiction
As he stood in the doorway, on his left, near the bay window in the
upper end of the room, high on the table stood the athletic form of the
demoniac, raging and foaming, cursing and threatening in the frenzy of
_mania a potu_, swinging aloft the heavy chair which he whirled around
his head with the swiftness and velocity of a windmill. On the same
table stood Samson Longman and Randolph Hay, struggling to master the
maniac, who seemed possessed of the strength of seven devils.
On the floor, near the middle of the room, lay Michael Man, stunned by a
wound in his head, prostrate and insensible. Near him were scattered the
fragments of the astral lamp that had evidently been the instrument by
which his skull had been fractured. Beside him sat Judith Hay, with his
wounded head on her lap. She was weeping and wailing, giving full vent
to her grief and horror after the manner of her warm-hearted, impulsive
race. Beside him on the opposite side knelt the Rev. Mr. Campbell, with
a bowl of water and a napkin, washing the blood from the cut.
Away back in the lower end of the long room, on a shady sofa, sat Mrs.
Campbell and her daughter, Jennie Montgomery, clasped in each other’s
arms, with their heads hidden on each other’s shoulders, too much
shocked, horror-stricken, terrified to help, to speak or even to move.
From under the same sofa peered the pallid face and staring eyes of
Dandy Quin, who had evidently sought that lowly refuge “as the safest
place at the crack of doom” for a poor little old man.
Neither Clay Legg nor Will Walling were to be seen anywhere.
All this, which has required some time to describe, was taken in at one
view by John Legg. And for one instant he stood in doubt where first to
offer help; whether to jump—but no; honest John’s jumping days were
over—whether to scramble up on the table and help to subdue the maniac
possessed of a legion of devils, or to kneel down by the side of the
minister to serve if he could the wounded man. In another moment the
doubt was decided for him.
Ran succeeded in getting both his hands around the throat of the
demoniac, which he held as in the grip of death, while Longman wrenched
and twisted the heavy, murderous missile from his hands and dropped it
on the floor and then closed with him in a conquering clasp. But it took
all his strength, as well as all of Ran’s, to hold the infuriate, now
that his arms were free.
Feeling sure that the maniac was conquered, John Legg turned his
attention from the scene of conquest on the table to the scene of
suffering on the carpet.
“Is the young man dangerously wounded?” he inquired in a low tone of Mr.
Campbell.
“We hope not. We hope this may be only a scalp wound. But it will be
impossible to tell until there is a surgical examination,” replied the
minister.
“Has a doctor been sent for?”
“Yes; Mr. Walling has gone out to dispatch a servant for Mr. Hobbs, the
village practitioner.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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