Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/273

 Lord, what I have stood from him would amaze ye.”

“You shall stand no more,” says I fiercely, but wondering what mischief she was conceiving.

“Indeed,” she says, very softly, “I am beholden to you for your offices. ’Tis he himself that has brought deliverance to me.”

“That is so,” said I, grimly, “I will quit you no more.”

She sighed, and lifting her eyes to mine, thinks to befool me with her blandishments.

“And there is one service you shall do me,” she says very low.

“What is that?” I asked.

“You must know,” she answers, dropping her voice still lower, “that this same fellow has upon him a valuable necklet of mine, the which he has appropriated for himself. Wrest it from him,” she whispers eagerly, “wrest it from him, and let us be done with him for ever.”

At once I got a notion of what lay between them, and the origin of this disagreement. The necklace, I guessed, must ha’ been destined for