In spite of the impatience
and preoccupation of a lover, he found himself again and again
recurring to the story he had just heard, until the vengeful spirit
of the murdered Doctor seemed to darken and possess the house. He
was striving to shake off the feeling, when his attention was
attracted to stealthy footsteps in the passage. Could it be
Maruja? He rose to his feet, with his eye upon the door. The
footsteps ceased--it remained closed. But another door, which had
escaped his attention in the darkened corner, slowly swung on its
hinges, and, with a stealthy step, Pereo, the mayordomo, entered
the room.
Courageous and self-possessed as Captain Carroll was by nature and
education, this malevolent vision, and incarnation of the thought
uppermost in his mind, turned him cold. He had half drawn a
derringer from his breast, when his eye fell on the grizzled locks
and wrinkled face of the old man, and his hand dropped to his side.
But Pereo, with the quick observation of insanity, had noticed the
weapon, and rubbed his hands together, with a malicious laugh.
"Good! good! good!" he whispered, rapidly, in a strange bodiless
voice; "'t will serve! 't will serve! And you are a soldier too--
and know how to use it! Good, it is a Providence!" He lifted his
hollow eyes to heaven, and then added, "Come! come!"
Carroll stepped towards him. He was alone and in the presence of
an undoubted madman--one strong enough, in spite of his years, to
inflict a deadly injury, and one whom he now began to realize might
have done so once before.
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