The Argosy — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

The Village Blacksnuth. 105 seen Vera drop them out of the window too late to save them. He was wounded; he would swear Vera shot him. No one else was present, who could contradict him? ‘* Lucky for me I was wounded instead of her,” he thought to himself as Mrs. Ryot-Tempest made a feeble attempt to bandage his wound with a towel torn into strips. During this process, all that Mrs. Ryot-Tempest could elicit from Mark at first was groans and broken sentences, such as, ** Too late!” “Oh! the jewels!” ‘I tried to save them!” “I am shot! I am shot !” “Who shot you?” demanded Mrs. Ryot-Tempest; but she had to ask the question several times before she received a direct answer. ‘Don’t ask me, ma’am!” groaned Mark at last. ‘¢T insist upon knowing. Who shot you?” ** Miss Vera. Oh! the diamonds, the diamonds !” “Miss Vera! What, by mistake for the thief?” ‘No; on purpose. I was too late to save the diamonds.—Oh! the pain! the pain!” “On purpose! What do you mean, Mark? Try and tell me. I'll send for the doctor as soon as I can make some one hear,” replied Mrs. Ryot-Tempest, ringing the bell violently. ‘‘T came in just as Miss Vera had dropped the jewel-case out of the window, and she shot me.” ‘How horrible! Are you sure, Mark?” said Mrs. Ryot-Tempest, quite unable at first to believe this story, though already inwardly hoping it was true; for if so, here was a means of preventing Vera’s marriage with Captain Raleigh, who was much too proud a man to marry a dishonest wife. ‘Look, ma’am, look!” said Mark, pointing to his wounded arm. ‘But Ill have the law of her, though she is a lady and master’s daughter, that I will.” “Tt is too horrible,” repeated Mrs. Ryot-Tempest, as cook, who had heard a good deal of the above conversation, now showed her- self in answer to the bell. “Tell coachman to ride for the doctor at once: tell him to take Firefly,” said Mrs. Ryot-Tempest. And Mark knew his story had found one believer, for under ordinary circumstances Mrs. Tempest would never have dreamt, domestic tyrant as she was, of ordering Vera’s mare to be used. “That he shan’t nde Firefly,” thought cook to herself, inwardly resolving to deliver only the first part of the message, and not that till she had told Vera the substance of the conversation she had overheard. ‘‘T could go myself, ma’am, and save the doctor the trouble of coming here. It would be quicker, too,” said Mark, who was anxious to secure his fifty pounds, and thought the visit to the doctor would give him an opportunity of going to the hollow tree in quest of it. VOL, XLVIII. POR ET GomilGaooks (SO) am