第31章

LEOLINE.

In one instant Sir Norman was on his feet and his hand on his sword.In the tarry darkness, neither the face nor figure of the intruder could be made out, but he merely saw a darker shadow beside him standing in the sea of darkness.Perhaps he might have thought it a ghost, but that the hand which grasped his shoulder was unmistakably of flesh, and blood, and muscle, and the breathing of its owner was distinctly audible by his ads.

"Who are you?" demanded Sir Norman, drawing out his sword, and wrenching himself free from his unseen companion.

"Ah! it is you, is it? I thought so," said a not unknown voice.

"I have been calling you till I am hoarse, and at last gave it up, and started after you in despair.What are you doing here?""You, Ormiston!" exclaimed Sir Norman, in the last degree astonished."How - when - what are you doing here?""What are you doing here? that's more to the purpose.Down flat on your face, with your head stuck through that hole.What is below there, anyway?""Never mind," said Sir Norman, hastily, who, for some reason quite unaccountable to himself, did not wish Ormiston to see.

"There's nothing therein particular, but a lower range of vaults.

Do you intend telling me what has brought you here?""Certainly; the very fleetest horse I could find in the city.""Pshaw! You don't say so?" exclaimed Sir Norman, incredulously.

"But I presume you had some object in taking such a gallop? May I ask what? Your anxious solicitude on my account, very likely?""Not precisely.But, I say, Kingsley, what light is that shining through there ? I mean to see.""No, you won't," said Sir Norman, rapidly and noiselessly replacing the flag."It's nothing, I tell you, but a number of will-o-'wisps having a ball.Finally, and for the last time, Mr.

Ormiston, will you have the goodness to tell me what has sent you here?""Come out to the air, then.I have no fancy for talking in this place; it smells like a tomb.""There is nothing wrong, I hope?" inquired Sir Norman, following his friend, and threading his way gingerly through the piles of rubbish in the profound darkness.

"Nothing wrong, but everything extremely right.Confound this place! It would be easier walking on live eels than through these winding and lumbered passages.Thank the fates, we are through them, at last! for there is the daylight, or, rather the nightlight, and we have escaped without any bones broken."They had reached the mouldering and crumbling doorway, shown by a square of lighter darkness, and exchanged the damp, chill atmosphere of the vaults for the stagnant, sultry open air.Sir Norman, with a notion in his head that his dwarfish highness might have placed sentinels around his royal residence, endeavored to pierce the gloom in search of them.Though he could discover none, he still thought discretion the better part of valor, and stepped out into the road.

"Now, then, where are you going?" inquired Ormiston for, following him.

"I don't wish to talk here; there is no telling who may be listening.Come along."Ormiston glanced back at the gloomy rain looming up like a black spectre in the blackness.

"Well, they most have a strong fancy for eavesdropping, I must say, who world go to that haunted heap to listen.What have you seen there, and where have you left your horse?""I told you before," said Sir Norman, rather impatiently, "I that I have seen nothing - at least, nothing you would care about; and my horse is waiting me at the Golden Crown.""Very well, we have no time to lose; so get there as fast as you can, and mount him and ride as if the demon were after you back to London.""Back to London? Is the man crazy? I shall do no such thing, let me tell you, to-night.""Oh, just as you please," said Ormiston, with a great deal of indifference, considering the urgent nature of his former request."You can do as you like, you know, and so can I - which translated, means, I will go and tell her you have declined to come.""Tell her? Tell whom? What are you talking about? Hang it, man!" exclaimed Sir Norman, getting somewhat excited and profane, "what are you driving at? Can't you speak out and tell me at once?""I have told you!" said Ormiston, testily: "and I tell you again, she sent me in search of you, and if you don't choose to come, that's your own affair, and not mine."This was a little too mach for Sir Norman's overwrought feelings, and in the last degree of exasperation, he laid violent hands on the collar of Ormiston's doublet let, and shook him as if be would have shaken the name out with a jerk.

"I tell you what it is, Ormiston, you had better not aggravate me!I can stand a good deal, but I'm not exactly Moses or Job, and you had better mind what you're at.If you don't come to the point at once, and tell me who I she is, I'll throttle you where you stand; and so give you warning."Half-indignant, and wholly laughing, Ormiston stepped back out of the way of his excited friend.

"I cry you mercy! In one word, then, I have been dispatched by a lady in search of you, and that lady is - Leoline."It has always been one of the inscrutable mysteries in natural philosophy that I never could fathom, why men do not faint.

Certain it is, I never yet heard of s man swooning from excess of surprise or joy, and perhaps that may account for Sir Norman's not doing so on the present occasion.But he came to an abrupt stand-still in their rapid career; and if it had not been quite so excessively dark, his friend would have beheld a countenance wonderful to look on, in its mixture of utter astonishment and sublime consternation.

"Leoline!" he faintly gasped."Just atop a moment, Ormiston, and say that again - will you?""No," said Ormiston, hurrying unconcernedly on; "I shall do no such thing, for there is no time to lose, and if there were Ihave no fancy for standing in this dismal road.Come on, man, and I'll tell you as we go."Thus abjured, and seeing there was no help for it, Sir Norman, in a dazed and bewildered state, complied; and Ormiston promptly and briskly relaxed into business.