moonlight, and a sort of grey mist hovered over the valley like smoke. I ran around the angle of the house on to the lawn, and went plunging through flower-beds heedlessly to the scene of the incredible conflict. I almost fell over Wales as he lay inert upon the gravel path. The shadows veiled him so that I could not see his face; but when, groping with my hands, I sought to learn if his heart still pulsed, I failed to discover any evidence that it[35] did. With my hand thrust against his breast and my ear lowered anxiously, I listened, but he gave no sign of life, lying as still as all else around me. [35] Now this stillness was broken. Excited voices became audible, and doors were being unlocked here and there. First of all the household, Mrs. Dale appeared, enveloped in a lace dressing-gown. “Aubrey!” she cried tremulously, “what is it? where are you?” “He is here, Mrs. Dale,” I answered, standing up, “and in a bad way, I fear.” “For Heaven’s sake, what has happened to him? Did you hear his awful cries?” “I did,” I said shortly. Standing with the moonlight fully upon her, Mrs. Dale sought him in the shadows of the hedge—and I knew that by the manner of his frightened outcry the man lying unconscious at my feet had forfeited whatever of her regard he had enjoyed. She was dreadfully alarmed, not so much on his behalf, as by the mystery of the attack upon him. But now she composed herself, though not without visible effort. “Where is he, Mr. Addison?” she said firmly, “and what has happened to him?” [36] [36] A man, who proved to be a gardener, now appeared upon the scene. “Help me to carry him in,” I said to this new arrival; “perhaps he has only fainted.” We gathered up the recumbent body and carried it through the kitchens into the breakfast-room, where there was a deep couch. All the servants were gathered at the foot of the stairs, frightened and useless, but the outcry did not seem to have aroused Major Dale. Mrs. Dale and I bent over Wales. His face was frightfully congested, whilst his tongue
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