England -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Runaway children -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
I followed him on to the landing without a word, and after he had locked
up the attic he led the way softly to the sitting-room, where he lit a
fire and we had some breakfast, for it was too late to think of bed.
Shortly afterwards we walked down together to the office, and I saw him
no more till the day's work was done.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
ANOTHER WAKEFUL NIGHT.
Stephen Hallett was in too much trouble to speak to me about the model
that evening. Mrs Hallett was in tears, and full of repinings, and
Linny was out, it seemed, when her brother had returned.
I soon found that he did not wish me to stay, and being tired out, I
made the best of my way back to Caroline Street, and went to bed to
sleep heavily, dreaming that Hallett and I were working away at the
model, but as fast as ever we got it nearly to perfection, Mr Blakeford
came and stood by to throw in the pieces of the stick with which he had
been beaten by Mr Wooster, and every time he did so the little model
was broken.
Then the whole scene of the flogging seemed to take the place of
Hallett's attic, and I saw Mr Blakeford sit down in a chair, panting,
bloody, and exhausted, and he kept on saying in a low hoarse voice,
"Antony, lad, water!"
It was very terrible to see him sitting there by the light of the office
gas, for though I wanted to help him, the power was not there, and,
strive how I would, I could not get to his side, or fetch what he asked
for.
"Antony, lad, water!"
His voice sounded like a groan, and I knew he must be very bad; but
still I could not help him, and the bitter moan with which he appealed
to me seemed to cut me to the heart.
"Antony, lad, water!"
There it was again, and I started up to find myself in bed, with a
candle burning in the room, and Revitts, with his hat on the floor, his
coat torn open, and his face besmeared with the blood flowing from a cut
in the forehead, was seated close beside his bed, evidently half
fainting.
"Antony, lad, water?" he moaned; and leaping out of bed and hurrying on
some clothes, I tried to give him what help I could, but in a strangely
confused way; for I was, as it were, in a dream, consequent upon the
deep sleep succeeding a night without my usual rest. I held a glass of
water to his lips, however, from which he drank with avidity. And then,
awakening more to the state in which he was, and realising that it was
not a dream, I set to work and sponged and bound up the cut with a
handkerchief, to find, however, to my horror, that there was another
terrible cut on the back of his head, which was also bleeding profusely.
My next idea was to go for a doctor, but I reflected that I ought to
first bind up the other wound, and this I did, leaving him in the chair,
with his chest and head lying over on the bed, looking so white that a
chill of horror shot through me, for I fancied that he was dying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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