My mind, under these new
impressions, worked with unusual vivacity. I was here shut off
with Fenn and his hireling in a deserted house, a neglected garden,
and a wood of evergreens: the most eligible theatre for a deed of
darkness. There came to me a vision of two flagstones raised in
the hall-floor, and the driver putting in the rainy afternoon over
my grave, and the prospect displeased me extremely. I felt I had
carried my pleasantry as far as was safe; I must lose no time in
declaring my true character, and I was even choosing the words in
which I was to begin, when the hall-door was slammed-to behind me
with a bang, and I turned, dropping my stick as I did so, in time--
and not any more than time--to save my life.
The surprise of the onslaught and the huge weight of my assailant
gave him the advantage. He had a pistol in his right hand of a
portentous size, which it took me all my strength to keep
deflected. With his left arm he strained me to his bosom, so that
I thought I must be crushed or stifled. His mouth was open, his
face crimson, and he panted aloud with hard animal sounds. The
affair was as brief as it was hot and sudden. The potations which
had swelled and bloated his carcase had already weakened the
springs of energy. One more huge effort, that came near to
overpower me, and in which the pistol happily exploded, and I felt
his grasp slacken and weakness come on his joints; his legs
succumbed under his weight, and he grovelled on his knees on the
stone floor.
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