American fiction -- 19th century; Dime novels; Popular literature
One idea and one alone had possession of Rossie. If she would escape she
must be _still_, and she sometimes held her breath lest she should be
heard by the men, who, at the far end of the long hall, were passing in
and out of the room where the dead body lay. No one came near No. —, or
paid any attention when, about half-past ten, two female figures emerged
from the door,—one wrapped in a blue waterproof, with the hood drawn
closely over the face; the other unmistakably Yulah, who, locking the
door behind her and putting the key in her pocket, hurried with her
companion down the two long flights of stairs, and through a back,
winding piazza, to the rear of the house, where the door she had
unfastened an hour before stood partly open, and through which she went,
dragging her companion after her. It was literally dragging until the
safety of the thick shrubbery was reached, when Rossie gave out and sank
down at Yulah’s feet unconscious, and fainted entirely away. To add to
Yulah’s alarm, there was a sound of footsteps near. Somebody was in the
wood besides herself, and she waited breathlessly until the sound ceased
in the distance, as the person or persons, for there seemed to be two,
hurried on. Then, taking Rossie in her arms, she made what progress she
could, groping through the dark and underbrush, as she dared not keep to
the path. But the gate was reached at last, and with Michel’s strong
hands to help, Rossie was lifted over it and into the carriage, which
was driven rapidly in the direction of the nearest railway station.
CHAPTER L.
GOING HOME.
Three weeks after the events recorded in the last chapter, the _City of
Berlin_ came slowly up the New York harbor, and of all the eager,
expectant faces in the crowd of people upon the deck, none was happier
or more eager than that of Beatrice, who, now that her work was
accomplished, and Rossie safe in her possession, had given herself up to
the pleasures of her honeymoon, and been the merriest, happiest, most
loving of brides, during all the voyage, except when she looked at the
white-faced girl who lay in her berth so quietly, or sat so still in her
chair on deck, looking out upon the sea with eyes which did not seem to
see anything or take note of what was passing.
The flight from Haelder-Strauchsen to the nearest railroad had been
accomplished in safety, and there they waited a few hours for the
arrival of the train, which was to take them away from the scene of so
much danger. And here it was that Beatrice suggested to Yulah that she
go with them to America, either as Rossie’s maid or her own.
“I mean to do it all the time, then I see what come to he,—the
villain,—and I take much care my poor little one, who so tired and
scared in her head, but who come right sure when the boy Everard is
near,” Yulah said, as she stroked the thin, hot hands, folded so
helplessly across Rossie’s breast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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