I have but just recovered; the fresh scar you can
see on my temple."
And brushing away the hair, he exposed a hardly healed, terrible gash. This
appeared to satisfy his listener.
"I have, therefore, done the best I could, and you must charge the rest to
fate--a fate whose inexorable decree I almost rebeled against bowing to.
But I am here, my warning is given, and I can only regret that it comes so
late."
These words and the exhibition of the scar restored Ellen's confidence in
the stranger, and, with it, her fears returned. He perceived this, and
proceeded:
"Though your case is a desperate one, there is still some hope; there is a
_possibility_ of your deliverance from impending peril."
"Then let me know how I am to act."
"I fear to do so."
"Why fear?"
"It may prove a desperate alternative."
"Nothing can be so dreadful as falling into the hands of my enemy."
"Perhaps not; still you may be unable to choose between the evils."
"Let me know them, and I will try."
"As I said, it may be a desperate alternative, and I must ask of you
beforehand to pardon me for being compelled to give you only the choice
between what may prove one of two equally direful evils. Your only hope of
relief from present evil _is in me_."
This was an unexpected announcement; it fairly startled Ellen, and, in the
moment of bewilderment, she made no reply.
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