"Come away. Come away," said the elder man, laying his hand nervously on the arm of one of the others.
"Not till this thing is settled," he replied, shaking off the other’s hand impatiently. "I mean to have the truth out of the old rat, or his life."
"And the girl’s too," added the other. "You know what we were told about them both. I shall wait for him."
"No, no. No bloodshed, no bloodshed, for Heaven’s sake," cried the old man with a gesture of protest and dismay.
"My God! Look here!" This was from one of the two who had moved forward and was pointing at the dead body.
The old man gave a cry of horror and sank into a chair covering his face in his clasped hands.
His companions were standing by the body gazing at one another in blank wonderment and surprise. Then one of them stooped down and examined the corpse.
"Dead, sure enough; and murdered, too," he announced.
He rose and they both looked round at the elder man. "Do you know anything of this?" asked one.
Without a word the man they addressed sprang up and rushed out of the room.
The two stared at one another again in silence.
His companion winced. His nerves were not so tough.
"What shall we do?" he asked rather huskily. He was beginning to shake.
"Do? Why, what we came to do, of course. Find the old rat’s daughter and finish the thing," he said brutally, and with an oath.
Hagar was trembling like an aspen and her breath was so laboured and heavy that I made sure they would hear it.
I pressed her arm to try and reassure her.
"I think we’d better go," said the weaker fellow.
A muttered oath at his cowardice was the response. "I’m going to search the house," declared his companion, and he began to glance round the room.
But the other went toward the door. "I’m going."
At this moment Hagar could restrain her terror no longer, and a heavy half-sigh half-groan burst from her.
Both men turned at once toward the curtains, and the bolder one put his hand to draw a weapon, knife or pistol; but before he could get it out, I stepped forward and covered him with my revolver.
"The Englishman!" they both cried in a breath, and the man by the door darted out of the room.
His companion stood his ground and met my look steadily.
"Take your hand from that weapon of yours," I cried sternly.