THE DOCTOR'S ANSWER.

It was with a sense of waking from a dream that Brace Norton opened his eyes to gaze upon lights and faces dancing around him; but it was long before he could collect his thoughts sufficiently to reply to questions that were asked. By degrees, though, he could make out that it was Sir Murray Gernon who was speaking, and then there arose a loud, wailing woman's cry, followed by a voice Brace recognised.

"Ye're reet, la.s.sie--it is, sure enew. It's Jock Gurdon come back to get his deserts."

"Blast you!--a doctor--I'm--I'm dy--Here, quick!--a doctor, or I shall bleed to death!" groaned the wretched man.

"Has any one gone for a medical man?" said a stern voice.

"Yes, Sir Mooray, I've sent for a doctor and the police, too. It's gude for us that the loons were quarrelling over the spoil."

"Isa, my child, this is no place for you!" exclaimed Sir Murray.

"That's right," cried Lord Maudlaine, who was also present; "I've been asking her to go. My dear Miss Gernon--Isa--what are you about? Don't go near him!"

Lord Maudlaine might well exclaim, for Isa Gernon, pale and scared, was slowly advancing towards where Brace Norton lay. The eyes of love were more piercing than those of the bystanders; and in those swollen and bleeding features Isa had recognised those of the man who had told her again and again of his love.

"Brace!" she cried, in a low, husky voice, as, falling upon her knees at his side, heedless of all present, she laid her hands upon his; for this could be no burglar, as they had told her--there must be some horrible mystery here.

"Isa!" he whispered, as his eyes met hers for an instant, ere they closed.

"Quick!--quick!" cried the agitated girl. "Father--dear papa--oh, what is this? You have shot him, and he is dying. Oh, quick!--quick!--a doctor!"

Her cries seemed to drive away the fainting sensation that oppressed Brace Norton; and as Sir Murray--astounded at his daughter's words-- hurried to her side, the young man's eyes again unclosed, for his lips to part in a faint smile.

"No, no," he whispered--"not shot--that man--Gurdon--I followed him-- stabbed, I fear--perhaps to death--the cross, Sir Murray; look! Lady Gernon's--my father's innocence--left for me to prove--I know--old story--take it, Isa, love--if I pa.s.s away, recollect--not--son-- dishonoured man--saved--"

"The brae laddie has fainted, and, Gude save us! it's young Brace Norton. Here, quick!--some water, and don't all stand staring like daft fules!" cried McCray. But, at the same moment, with his mind a chaos of wild thoughts, Sir Murray Gernon had sunk upon his knees by the young man, whose hands still clutched the sparkling cross, the jewels glittering brightly yet, though partly encrusted with soot. It was some few minutes, during which he had been striving to stanch the young man's wound, before he could arrange his thoughts into something like their proper sequence.

This man, then--this Gurdon--had, indeed, stolen the cross; picked it up the night of the great party--more than twenty years ago--and concealed it here, behind the stove; for it was plain enough from whence it had been taken. Here, then, was the key to Gurdon's attempted burglaries-- the man who, with the knowledge of a hidden treasure, had never been able to take it from the spot where it had been placed. Had he, then,-- he, Sir Murray Gernon,--been wrong in his suspicions, and was this young man's father, after all, innocent? No; impossible! he was clear of one foul stain, but the other mystery was unsolved.

The unwonted feeling of gentleness that had come upon him, for a few minutes, as he knelt by the injured man, soon pa.s.sed away, and the old, hard frown came fiercely back.

There was no one there he could speak to, and say that he was glad the jewels were found, and that he hoped the other mystery might be cleared up; but he rose, with a half-shudder, from his knees, as Jane McCray came forward, pale and trembling, her eyes fixed on his; and as the recollection of the past came back, he would have turned and left the room. But Jane's hand was on his arm, and, in a voice that was only heard by Isa, she said, beseechingly:

"Oh, Sir Murray, don't be hard upon your poor child, as you were on my own dear lady! I'll never say a word--I'll take all with me to the grave; only, now that it has pleased Heaven to make all this clear, and to show you what you would never believe, try and repent, and ask forgiveness of those you so cruelly wronged! You can't do much now-- it's too late; but oh! Sir Murray--dear master--do something! Twenty years and more ago, now, since the wrongs were done; and yet, you see, how judgment comes at last for the wicked. You know now how cruelly wrong you were; there it all is. You thought, between them, there had been something done with that cross, and now you see. I hoped that man had died repenting, in a far-off land; but it was to be his fate to come and clear this up first--to show you how ill you treated my poor, sweet lady--to show you her innocence and--"

"Loose your hold, woman!" whispered Sir Murray, hoa.r.s.ely.

"No," she said, holding his arm tightly--"not yet. You know how I promised her, Sir Murray, that I'd be, as far as I could, a mother to that child; and I've tried to. Haven't I, for her sake, sealed my lips, and kept hid a secret that has made the white come in my hair? Am I not an old and faithful servant? After what I have done, can you not trust me when I say that I will carry all I know to the grave? But, Sir Murray, you will try--you will make right what you can. Don't break their hearts. Look at that brave boy. You know how he loves her; you know how you injured his father. Promise me that you will repent of it all, and try to make them happy."

"Confound the woman!" cried Sir Murray, angrily--"she is mad! Lord Maudlaine, this is no place for your betrothed; take her away. Ha! here is the doctor at last."

As Jane McCray covered her face with her hands, and fell back with a groan, Lord Maudlaine advanced to where Isa, who had heard all that had pa.s.sed, still knelt by Brace Norton's side.

"Miss Gernon--Isa," he said, anxiously; "let me lead you away. Sir Murray wisely says that this is no place for you."

"No place!" she cried, her soft eyes flashing into light. "Is it not a woman's place beside the man she loves, when he is stricken down and helpless? Keep back, sir! I do not require your forced attentions!"

The aspect of Lord Maudlaine's face was a mingling of the ludicrous and the enraged; but no one seemed to heed it, for, evidently violently agitated, Sir Murray had left the room, while all eyes were now directed to the doctor, whose ministrations were rapid, and orders issued sharply, as if he meant to have them obeyed.

"Gude-sake, sir!" said McCray, at last, unable to restrain his feelings, for he had read the anxiety in his young lady's countenance--"Gude-sake, sir, tell's how they all are!"

"Burglar--bad shot through shoulder, but not dangerous; Mr Norton-- serious stab, knife pierced the--"

"Gude-sake, sir, never mind that!" exclaimed McCray. "Tell's the warst at once: is he likely--"

McCray did not finish his sentence in words, but with his eyes; while, with an anxious troubled look, the doctor glanced towards the figure of Isa Gernon, before he replied:

"Well, McCray, I--There, I'll give you my opinion to-morrow."

Book 2, Chapter XXV.

CRUSHED DOWN.

Die? What, with those sweet imploring eyes bidding him live?--with hope telling him that now one part of the mystery was cleared the other must soon be swept away?--with his own heart whispering energy, and patience, and desire for life? No; his spirit had well-nigh been drained away by that cruel stab, but Brace Norton smiled at the pain he suffered, and fought back the black shade that bade him succ.u.mb.

They bore him from the Castle to his own home; for as soon as the news spread of the late adventure, Captain and Mrs Norton, who had pa.s.sed an anxious night, had themselves driven over to the Castle, and, in spite of the doctor's remonstrance, insisted upon bringing their son away.

"I cannot help it, Challen," said Captain Norton--"the risk must be run.

You must do your best to avert danger, for he cannot stay here."

"As you will," said the doctor; and he proceeded to superintend the young man's removal to the carriage.

Sir Murray Gernon knew of their coming, but he did not meet them. He shut himself up in his study, and as Brace was being placed in the carriage, McCray came forward, and handed a note to Captain Norton, who started as he saw the cipher on the great seal.

He tore it open and read the following lines:

"Sir Murray Gernon feels it to be his duty to apologise to Captain Norton for having done him _one_ grievous wrong. The Sapphire Cross was stolen by Sir Murray's butler, and is once more in its owner's hands.

"Sir Murray Gernon asks Captain Norton's pardon."

Without a word, Captain Norton handed the note to his wife, who read it; and then, with the proud blood rushing to her temples, she handed it back, watching him to see what he would do.

There was a look almost of pa.s.sion in Captain Norton's eye, and the great broad scar looked red and angry, as he stood there biting his lip for a few brief instants before he spoke.

The library door was ajar, and every word of his sharp, military speech was plainly heard by the occupant, as, drawing himself up, Captain, Norton turned to McCray.

"You are Sir Murray Gernon's confidential servant," he said. "I will not write, but tell him this from me: he asks my pardon for a wrong, and I have waited over twenty years till the truth should appear. I go now to wait for the fellow-letter to this; when he shall ask my forgiveness for another wrong, then I will send him my reply."

He turned and walked slowly and proudly down the great steps of the main entrance, while their owner cowered in his room, shrinking back into the far corner, as he watched and saw through the window that Isa was at the carriage-door, holding one of Brace's hands in hers, as she looked appealingly in Dr Challen's face. His brow darkened as he saw it, for it seemed as if his efforts were to be set at nought, and that the more he battled against the stream of events the more it swept him back. But he did not hear his child's plaintive words, as she spoke to the doctor.

"Pray--pray tell me!" she whispered: "Is he in danger?"

"Danger? Well, yes, of course he is," said the doctor, taking her in his arms and kissing her as he would one of his own children. "But there, bless your bright little face, go in, and don't fidget and make those eyes dull with crying, and I'll cure him right off for you. Now, Captain Norton," he continued, lightly--"slow march for the horses--two miles an hour--with the windows all down, and I must ride inside."

Brace fainted as the carriage-door was closed, but it was with the sense of his hand being kissed by two soft, warm lips, ere all became misty and confused; and then it was that Dr Challen's light, flippant manner gave place to a quiet, serious aspect, as he plied restoratives, and prepared for the battle that his experience told him was imminent.