CHAPTER LXXVIII.
THE ALTERCATION BETWEEN VARNEY AND THE EXECUTIONER IN THE HALL.--THEMUTUAL AGREEMENT.
There was certainly a loud wrangling in the Hall, just as the doctorfinished his most remarkable revelation concerning Sir Francis Varney, arevelation which by no means attacked the fact of his being a vampyre ornot; but rather on the contrary, had a tendency to confirm any opinionthat might arise from the circumstance of his being restored to lifeafter his execution, favourable to that belief.
They all three now carefully approached the windows of the Hall, tolisten to what was going on, and after a few moments they distinctlyheard the voice of the hangman, saying in loud and rather angryaccents,--
"I do not deny but that you have kept your word with me--our bargain hasbeen, as you say, a profitable one: but, still I cannot see why thatcircumstance should give you any sort of control over my actions."
"But what do you here?" said Varney, impatiently.
"What do you?" cried the other.
"Nay, to ask another question, is not to answer mine. I tell you that Ihave special and most important business in this house; you can have nomotive but curiosity."
"Can I not, indeed? What, too, if I have serious and important businesshere?"
"Impossible."
"Well, I may as easily use such a term as regards what you callimportant business, but here I shall remain."
"Here you shall not remain."
"And will you make the somewhat hazardous attempt to force me to leave?"
"Yes, much as I dislike lifting my hand against you, I must do so; Itell you that I must be alone in this house. I have most specialreasons--reasons which concern my continued existence.
"Your continued existence you talk of.--Tell me, now, how is it that youhave acquired so frightful a reputation in this neighbourhood? Go whereI will, the theme of conversation is Varney, the vampyre! and it isimplicitly believed that you are one of those dreadful characters thatfeed upon the life-blood of others, only now and then revisiting thetomb to which you ought long since to have gone in peace."
"Indeed!"
"Yes; what, in the name of all that's inexplicable, has induced you toenact such a character?"
"Enact it! you say. Can you, then, from all you have heard of me, andfrom all you know of me, not conceive it possible that I am not enactingany such character? Why may it not be real? Look at me. Do I look likeone of the inhabitants of the earth?"
"In sooth, you do not."
"And yet I am, as you see, upon it. Do not, with an affected philosophy,doubt all that may happen to be in any degree repugnant to your usualexperiences."
"I am not one disposed to do so; nor am I prepared to deny that suchdreadful beings may exist as vampyres. However, whether or not youbelong to so frightful a class of creatures, I do not intend to leavehere; but, I will make an agreement with you."
Varney was silent; and after a few moments' pause, the otherexclaimed,--
"There are people, even now, watching the place, and no doubt you havebeen seen coming into it."
"No, no, I was satisfied no one was here but you."
"Then you are wrong. A Doctor Chillingworth, of whom you know something,is here; and him, you have said, you would do no harm to, even to saveyour life."
"I do know him. You told me that it was to him that I was mainlyindebted for my mere existence; and although I do not consider humanlife to be a great boon, I cannot bring myself to raise my hand againstthe man who, whatever might have been the motives for the deed, at allevents, did snatch me from the grave."
"Upon my word," whispered the admiral, "there is something about thatfellow that I like, after all."
"Hush!" said Henry, "listen to them. This would all have beenunintelligible to us, if you had not related to us what you have."
"I have just told you in time," said Chillingworth, "it seems."
"Will you, then," said the hangman, "listen to proposals?"
"Yes," said Varney.
"Come along, then, and I will show you what I have been about; and Irather think you have already a shrewd guess as to my motive. Thisway--this way."
They moved off to some other part of the mansion, and the sound of theirvoices gradually died away, so that after all, the friends had not gotthe least idea of what that motive was, which still induced the vampyreand the hangman, rather than leave the other on the premises, to make anagreement to stay with each other.
"What's to be done now?" said Henry.
"Wait," said Dr. Chillingworth, "wait, and watch still. I see nothingelse that can be done with any degree of safety."
"But what are we to wait for?" said the admiral.
"By waiting, we shall, perhaps, find out," was the doctor's reply; "butyou may depend that we never shall by interfering."
"Well, well, be it so. It seems that we have no other resource. And wheneither or both of those fellows make their appearance, and seem about toleave, what is to be done with them?"
"They must be seized then, and in order that that may be done withoutany bloodshed, we ought to have plenty of force here. Henry, could youget your brother, and Charles, if he be sufficiently recovered, tocome?"
"Certainly, and Jack Pringle."
"No," said the admiral, "no Jack Pringle for me; I have done with himcompletely, and I have made up my mind to strike him off the ship'sbooks, and have nothing more to do with him."
"Well, well," added the doctor, "we will not have him, then; and it isjust as well, for, in all likelihood, he would come drunk, and we shallbe--let me see--five strong without him, which ought to be enough totake prisoners two men."
"Yes," said Henry, "although one of them may be a vampyre."
"That makes no difference," said the admiral. "I'd as soon take a shipmanned with vampyres as with Frenchmen."
Henry started off upon his errand, certainly leaving the admiral and thedoctor in rather a critical situation while he was gone; for had Varneythe vampyre and the hangman chosen, they could certainly easily haveovercome so inefficient a force.
The admiral would, of course, have fought, and so might the doctor, asfar as his hands would permit him; but if the others had really beenintent upon mischief, they could, from their downright superior physicalpower, have taken the lives of the two that were opposed to them.
But somehow the doctor appeared to have a great confidence in theaffair. Whether that confidence arose from what the vampyre had saidwith regard to him, or from any hidden conviction of his own that theywould not yet emerge from the Hall, we cannot say; but certain it is, hewaited the course of events with great coolness.
No noise for some time came from the house; but then the sounds, as ifworkmen were busy within it, were suddenly resumed, and with more vigourthan before.
It was nearly two hours before Henry made the private signal which hadbeen agreed upon as that which should proclaim his return; and then heand his brother, with Charles, who, when he heard of the matter, would,notwithstanding the persuasions of Flora to the contrary, come, gotquietly over the fence at a part of the garden which was quite hiddenfrom the house by abundant vegetation, and the whole three of them tookup a position that tolerably well commanded a view of the house, whilethey were themselves extremely well hidden behind a dense mass ofevergreens.
"Did you see that rascal, Jack Pringle?" said the admiral.
"Yes," said Henry; "he is drunk."
"Ah, to be sure."
"And we had no little difficulty in shaking him off. He suspected wherewe were going; but I think, by being peremptory, we got fairly rid ofhim."
"The vagabond! if he comes here, I'll brain him, I will, the swab. Why,lately he's done nothing but drink. That's the way with him. He'll go onsometimes for a year and more, and not take more than enough to do himgood, and then all at once, for about six or eight weeks, he doesnothing but drink."
"Well, well, we can do without him," said Henry.
"Without him! I should think so. Do you hear those fel
lows in the Hallat work? D--n me, if I haven't all of a sudden thought what the reasonof it all is."
"What--what?" said the doctor, anxiously.
"Why, that rascal Varney, you know, had his house burnt down."
"Yes; well?"
"Yes, well. I dare say he didn't think it well. But, however, he nodoubt wants another; so, you see, my idea is, that he's stealing thematerial from Bannerworth Hall."
"Oh, is that your notion?"
"Yes, and a very natural one, I think, too, Master Doctor, whatever youmay think of it. Come, now, have you a better?"
"Oh, dear, no, certainly not; but I have a notion that something to eatwould comfort the inward man much."
"And so would something to drink, blow me if it wouldn't," said JackPringle, suddenly making his appearance.
The admiral made a rush upon him; but he was restrained by the others,and Jack, with a look of triumph, said,--
"Why, what's amiss with you now? I ain't drunk now. Come, come, you havesomething dangerous in the wind, I know, so I've made up my mind to bein it, so don't put yourself out of the way. If you think I don't knowall about it, you are mistaken, for I do. The vampyre is in the houseyonder, and I'm the fellow to tackle him, I believe you, my boys."
"Good God!" said the doctor, "what shall we do?"
"Nothing," said Jack, as he took a bottle from his pocket and appliedthe neck of it to his lips--"nothing--nothing at all."
"There's something to begin with," said the admiral, as with his stickhe gave the bottle a sudden blow that broke it and spilt all itscontents, leaving Jack petrified, with the bit of the neck of it stillin his mouth.
"My eye, admiral," he said, "was that done like a British seaman? Myeye--was that the trick of a lubber, or of a thorough-going first-rater?first-rater? My eye--"
"Hold your noise, will you; you are not drunk yet, and I was determinedthat you should not get so, which you soon would with that rum-bottle,if I had not come with a broadside across it. Now you may stay; but,mark me, you are on active service now, and must do nothing withoutorders."
"Ay, ay, your honour," said Jack, as he dropped the neck of the bottle,and looked ruefully upon the ground, from whence arose the aroma ofrum--"ay, ay; but it's a hard case, take it how you will, to have yourgrog stopped; but, d--n it, I never had it stopped yet when it was in mymouth."
Henry and Charles could not forbear a smile at Jack's discomfiture,which, however, they were very glad of, for they knew full well hisfailing, and that in the course of another half hour he would have beendrunk, and incapable of being controlled, except, as on some formeroccasions, by the exercise of brute force.
But Jack was evidently displeased, and considered himself to begrievously insulted, which, after all, was the better, inasmuch as,while he was brooding over his wrongs, he was quiet; when, otherwise, itmight have been a very difficult matter to make him so.
They partook of some refreshments, and, as the day advanced, thebrothers Bannerworth, as well as Charles Holland, began to get veryanxious upon the subject of the proceedings of Sir Francis Varney in theHall.
They conversed in low tones, exhausting every, as they considered,possible conjecture to endeavour to account for his mysteriouspredilection for that abode, but nothing occurred to them of asufficiently probable motive to induce them to adopt it as a conclusion.
They more than suspected Dr. Chillingworth, because he was so silent,and hazarded no conjecture at all of knowing something, or of havingformed to himself some highly probable hypothesis upon the subject; butthey could not get him to agree that such was the case.
When they challenged him upon the subject, all he would say was,--
"My good friends, you perceive that, there is a great mystery somewhere,and I do hope that to-night it will be cleared up satisfactorily."
With this they were compelled to be satisfied; and now the soft andsombre shades of evening began to creep over the scene, enveloping allobjects in the dimness and repose of early night.
The noise from the house had ceased, and all was profoundly still. Butmore than once Henry fancied he heard footsteps outside the garden.
He mentioned his suspicions to Charles Holland, who immediately said,--
"The same thing has come to my ears."
"Indeed! Then it must be so; we cannot both of us have merely imaginedsuch a thing. You may depend that this place is beleaguered in some way,and that to-night will be productive of events which will throw a greatlight upon the affairs connected with this vampyre that have hithertobaffled conjecture."
"Hush!" said Charles; "there, again; I am quite confident I heard asound as of a broken twig outside the garden-wall. The doctor and theadmiral are in deep discussion about something,--shall we tell them?"
"No; let us listen, as yet."
They bent all their attention to listening, inclining their ears towardsthe ground, and, after a few moments, they felt confident that more thanone footstep was creeping along, as cautiously as possible, under thegarden wall. After a few moments' consultation, Henry made up hismind--he being the best acquainted with the localities of the place--togo and reconnoitre, so he, without saying anything to the doctor or theadmiral, glided from where he was, in the direction of a part of thefence which he knew he could easily scale.
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