Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

WHAT THE MOON SAW ON THE OLD STONE PIKE. 29 ‘“The carriage is waiting, Mary,”’’ he said, uneasily, for this phase of villainy brought the cowardly blood into his cheeks, “‘T will be ready in a moment.”? And she left the room to prepare herself. “Ugh!? exclaimed the captain, when alone, wip- ing the perspiration from his forehead. ‘‘It takes the nerve of the old boy to go through such a scene. Only the desperate nature of my predicament could have sustained my self-possession. ‘‘Well,’’ he con- tinued, pacing the room, ‘‘the devil helps those who help themselves, I fancy, and may he help to the end is my fervent wish. In ten minutes Mary Bluff was teady to go with — her recreant lover. They passed quickly ‘down the steps and Ezra opened the carriage door. ‘There is some one here,’’ said Mary, holding back with one foot on the carriage step. | “Oh, yes,’’ said the captain, hastily, ‘‘it 1s a fam- ily connection. Major de Banyan, this is my wife.’ “Faith, madame, it gives me great pleasure to know you,’’ said the military gentleman, gallantly. Reassured, Mary entered the carriage and faced the ex-army surgeon. The captain, after speaking to the driver, jumped into the vehicle and shut the door. So far the conspiracy was extremely successful. Let us leave them and retrace our steps a bit. As soon as Royal Chetwood heard the plotters leave the adjoining room and go down stairs, he drew a long breath and exclaimed: ‘Well, of all the infernal bits of deviltry hatched in this world, that’s the most despicable. I should forever despise myself if I did not interfere é bring confusion upon those scoundrels, and save the poor _ lady whose fate is involved in such a mean conspir- Gomicbooks (E(0)