Page:Randall Parrish - The Red Mist.djvu/396

 376 hang the whole of you, if I had my way. Now get out, and don't answer me—those are your orders. Lieutenant Raymond."

"He was here a minute ago, sir," a voice answered from the vestibule, "but he went outside. I think he was touched a little in one arm."

"Pity it wasn't in the mouth; has anyone seen a woman?"

No one answered.

"No! that's strange! Here Green, take a couple of men, and feel your way along the walls; Jasper make a light of some kind—who wants me? Colonel Moran? Tell him I am the only officer present, and I can't leave. By God! the place is a shamble!"

The searching party was to the right of me, against the black shadow of the wall. It was darker than ever in the church, as though a cloud obscured the moon, but far away a ruddy glow reflected along the beams overhead, as someone coaxed a reluctant torch into flames. A medley of sound arose all about me—the mutter of voices, the shuffling of feet, groans, and cries for assistance, with the occasional thumping of a musket stock on the floor, and the rattle of broken glass. This was my chance, my one and only chance to slip away unobserved. In five minutes more the searching party would find me