Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/78

74 "Come," said Jim; "promise—swear to me, by all you hold sacred, that you'll do this."

"I swear!" said Jabez, solemnly.

"And if you break your oath," added his brother, "never come anigh the place where I'm buried, for I'll rise out of my grave and haunt you."

The dying man fell back exhausted on his pillow. The girl poured out some medicine and gave it to him, while Jabez walked to the door, and looked up at the sky.

A very dark sky for a night in June. A wide black canopy hung over the earth, and as yet there was not one feeble star to break the inky darkness. A threatening night—the low murmuring of whose sultry wind moaned and whispered prophecies of a coming storm. Never had the blindness of Blind Peter been darker than to-night. You could scarcely see your hand before you. A wretched woman who had just fetched half-a-quartern of gin from the nearest public-house, though a denizen of the place, and familiar with every broken flag-stone and crumbling brick, stumbled over her own threshold, and spilt a portion of the precious liquid.

It would have been difficult to imagine either the heavens or the earth under a darker aspect in the month of June. Not so, however, thought Mr. Jabez North; for, after contemplating the sky for some moments in silence, he exclaimed—"A fine night! A glorious night! It could not be better!"

A figure, one shade darker than the night, came between him and the darkness. It was the doctor, who said—

"Well, sir, I'm glad you think it a fine night; but I must beg to differ with you on the subject, for I never remember seeing a blacker sky, or one that threatened a more terrible storm at this season of the year."

"I was scarcely thinking of what I was saying, doctor. That poor man in there"

"Ah, yes; poor fellow! I doubt if he'll witness the storm, near as it seems to be. I suppose you take some interest in him on account of his extraordinary likeness to you?"

"That would be rather an egotistical reason for being interested in him. Common humanity induced me to come down to this wretched place, to see if I could be of any service to the poor creature."

"The action does you credit, sir," said the doctor. "And now for my patient."

It was with a very grave face that the medical man looked at poor Jim, who had, by this time, fallen into a fitful and restless slumber; and when Jabez drew him aside to ask his opinion, he said,—"If he lives through the next half-hour I shall be surprised. Where is the old woman—his grandmother?"