Roanoke of Roanoke Hall: A Romance — page 88: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

82 Roanoke of Roanoke Hall. At first Meg resolutely refused to assist me in any way to effect my purpose. “It’s nae mainnero’ use fleeching and fleeching that gate, Ralph,” she would make y answer ten times a day to my oft-repeated solicitation. ‘‘ There’s nae powther or lead in the haill hoose, nane ava. And hoo am I gaun to gie ye what isna?” g But if she could be obdurate I could be persistent, and at length, seeing that her only hope of escaping from this unending perse- cution was to yield, she grudgingly produced a small quantity, first exacting a solemn pledge that I would on no account venture off the stone platform onto the surrounding sands even to secure my prey. In future, seeing that I manfully kept to my promise, she occa« sionally replenished my store. . To begin with, I blazed away with more eagerness than discretion, but in course of time I began to improve, and eventually became a passably skilful marksman, a talent which in after years proved of no little use to me, though it also began by leading me into trouble, in this manner. - I had by my unceasing onslaughts on their comichbooks.com