Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the HeartJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
Morley Ernstein; or, the Tenants of the Heart
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
Mr. Carr instantly ran to a little old oak cabinet, and shook the door
to see if it had been opened. All was safe, however, and he exclaimed,
"Where?--how?--in what room?"
"In my room"--answered Lieberg; "that is to say, in the room where I
slept last night; and where, if I robbed you as you say, I committed
the folly of robbing myself also, to the amount of some six or seven
hundred pounds--It seems to me, Mr. Carr," he continued, in a quicker
but less ironical tone, "that this loss of yours has made you mad, and
that instead of thinking of recovering your property by pursuing these
men at once, with all the activity in your nature, you are, instead,
raving like an insane person. Why don't you saddle every horse in your
stable, and track the wheels of the cart in which they carried off
your goods and mine? I have already sent for a magistrate, and no time
ought to be lost in taking other measures."
"True--very true, Count!" said Mr. Carr, who, now that the first burst
of passion had passed, was coming to his senses again, and recollected
that it would not do to offend a guest, who was likely to hire his
manors--"I will send out some men directly. I beg your pardon, sir,
for being so violent, but this is a great loss.--We must despatch
people to the village, too, and after we have taken all sorts of
measures, we can just go over the manors together. But, dear me, what
shall I do about going to town with Miss Barham!--Hark!--what is that?
There is somebody calling me--they do not know where to find us.
Perhaps they have found some of the plate. It was very heavy, and the
men may have thrown it away. Here I am--here I am!" he continued,
putting his head out of the drawing-room door, "What do you want with
me? Have you found anything?"
"No, sir, no!" exclaimed the cook, running up with eager eyes. "We
have not found anything, but what is worse than finding anything in
this world, we can't find the young lady--we can't find Miss Barham!"
"God of Heaven!" exclaimed Lieberg, starting forward. "Can't find her?
Are there any signs of violence?"
"Oh, dear! Lord bless you, sir! they have murdered her!" exclaimed the
cook, with her eyes as big as saucers, while the housemaid gaped
behind, and Helen's maid appeared with the tears on her cheeks. "They
have murdered her, and taken away the body to bury it, like a dead
dog, in some field. I'll wager any money she saw them and screamed,
and they cut her throat. They would have cut mine, too, if I had
screamed, but I knew better."
"I declare I heard her scream in the night!" cried the housemaid; "but
I thought it was only a screech owl."
"Get along, you fool," said the cook, in reply, "you heard nothing at
all, not even yourself snoring."
"Let me pass!" said Lieberg, with his face as pale as death. "This
must be seen to at once."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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