Thrice Lost, Thrice Won — page 41: what you’re looking at

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

36 “Sick and in Prison,” In vain—all in vain! Still they came—fierce and count- less; they swarmed around her—upon her; they bit fiercely at the yielding flesh. One last, agonizing cry, and then she fell, face forward, among them—dead to them and all mortal agony. CHAPTER VI. *“SICeK AND IN PRISON.” Old J udith had gone-.to her room, but not to ten: Be- ~ neath that grim, iron surface somewhere, beat a woman’s heart, or the callous remains of one. She knew what the at- tic BY Fisher’s Folly was like; she knew the horrors of dark- ness and hordes of fierce rats. She sat down on the edge of her bed, and listened to the mad uproar of wind, and rain, and sea. “Fit night for sock a marriage,” she thought —“&t night for such demons’ babes as Roysten Darrell and Peter Fisher. Brave men both to pit themselves against one little, help- — less girl—bold heroes each! Will I sit here and let that child go raving mad up there? She ealled upon me for help, in her agony, and I—I had a daughter once.’ The grim old face worked. Another wild take shook the old house, rattled noisily at doors and windows, and beat the rain in a deluge against the walls. . “A horrible night,” Judith thought, with a shudder; “a horrible house to live in, and horrible wretches to live among. And I am as bad as the worst if I sit here and see that child go mad. No, Peter Fisher, turn me out to-morrow upon the — cee world, if you will—I will defy and disahey you to- nignt. She seized her candle, strode to the door, and up the creak- ing stairs to the attic-—just in time, and no more, to hear that last, frenzied shriek and that dull, heavy fall. “Rstella !” she called, rattling at the door, “Estella, child! it is Judith. Speak to me. I am going to break the lock and let you out.” But there was no reply. Only the frantic raving of the tempest, the noisy scampering of the rats. “Tord have mercy upon us sinners !” cried the old-woman, remorse-stricken. “She has fallen in a dead faint, and the rats are eating her alive!” She looked around; a heavy bar of iron lay among a Yeias of rubbish in a corner of the passage. To seize this, to bat- ter down the old lock, was hardly the work of three cho ok M