That it was a surprise, and that, too, a most complete one, was evident
from the start which the man gave, and then he uttered a furious oath,
and rubbed his back, as he glanced about him to endeavour to ascertain
from whence the missile had come. "I'll try him again with that," thought the doctor; "it may succeed in
scaring him away;" and he stooped to watch for another stone. It was well that he did so at that precise moment; for, before he rose
again, he heard the sharp report of a pistol, and a crashing sound among
some of the old wood work of which the summer-house was composed, told
him that a shot had there taken effect. Affairs were now getting much
too serious; and, accordingly, Dr. Chillingworth thought that, rather
than stay there to be made a target of, he would face the intruder. "Hold--hold!" he cried. "Who are you, and what do you mean by
that?"--"Oh! somebody is there," cried the man, as he advanced. "My
friend, whoever you are, you were very foolish to throw a stone at me." "And, my friend, whoever you are," responded the doctor, "you were very
spiteful to fire a pistol bullet at me in consequence." --

"Not at all." "But I say yes; for, probably, I can prove a right to be here, which you
cannot."--"Ah!" said the stranger, "that voice--why--you are Dr. Chillingworth?" "I am; but I don't know you," said the doctor, as he emerged now from
the summer-house, and confronted the stranger who was within a few paces
of the entrance to it. Then he started, as he added,--

"Yes, I do know you, though. How, in the name of Heaven, came you here,
and what purpose have you in so coming?" "What purpose have you? Since we met at Varney's, I have been making
some inquiries about this neighbourhood, and learn strange
things." --"That you may very easily do here; and, what is more
extraordinary, the strange things are, for the most part, I can assure
you, quite true." The reader will, from what has been said, now readily recognise this man
as Sir Francis Varney's mysterious visitor, to whom he gave, from some
hidden cause or another, so large a sum of money, and between whom and
Dr. Chillingworth a mutual recognition had taken place, on the occasion
when Sir Francis Varney had, with such cool assurance, invited the
admiral to breakfast with him at his new abode. "You, however," said the man, "I have no doubt, are fully qualified to
tell me of more than I have been able to learn from other people; and,
first of all, let me ask you why you are here?" --"Before I answer you
that question, or any other," said the doctor, "let me beg of you to
tell me truly, is Sir Francis Varney--"

The doctor whispered in the ear of the stranger some name, as if he
feared, even there, in the silence of that garden, where everything
conspired to convince him that he could not be overheard, to pronounce
it in an audible tone. "He is," said the other.--"You have no manner of doubt of it?" "Doubt?--certainly not. What doubt can I have? I know it for a positive
certainty, and he knows, of course, that I do know it, and has purchased
my silence pretty handsomely, although I must confess that nothing but
my positive necessities would have induced me to make the large demands
upon him that I have, and I hope soon to be able to release him
altogether from them." The doctor shook his head repeatedly, as he said,--

"I suspected it; I suspected it, do you know, from the first moment that
I saw you there in his house. His face haunted me ever since--awfully
haunted me; and yet, although I felt certain that I had once seen it
under strange circumstances, I could not identify it with--but no
matter, no matter. I am waiting here for him." "Indeed!" --"Ay, that I am; and I flung a stone at you, not knowing you,
with hope that you would be, by such means, perhaps, scared away, and so
leave the coast clear for him." "Then you have an appointment with him?" --"By no means; but he has made
such repeated and determined attacks upon this house that the family who
inhabited it were compelled to leave it, and I am here to watch him, and
ascertain what can possibly be his object." "It is as I suspected, then," muttered this man. "Confound him! Now can
I read, as if in a book, most clearly, the game that he is playing!" "Can you?" cried the doctor, energetically--"can you? What is it? Tell
me, for that is the very thing I want to discover." --"You don't say so?" "It is, indeed; and I assure you that it concerns the peace of a whole
family to know it. You say you have made inquiries about this
neighbourhood, and, if you have done so, you have discovered how the
family of the Bannerworths have been persecuted by Varney, and how, in
particular, Flora Bannerworth, a beautiful and intelligent girl, has
been most cruelly made to suffer." "I have heard all that, and I dare say with many exaggerations." --"It
would be difficult for any one really to exaggerate the horrors that
have taken place in this house, so that any information which you can
give respecting the motives of Varney will tend, probably, to restore
peace to those who have been so cruelly persecuted, and be an act of
kindness which I think not altogether inconsistent with your nature." "You think so, and yet know who I am." --"I do, indeed." "And what I am. Why, if I were to go into the market-place of yon town,
and proclaim myself, would not all shun me--ay, even the very lowest and
vilest; and yet you talk of an act of kindness not being altogether
inconsistent with my nature!" --"I do, because I know something more of
you than many." There was a silence of some moments' duration, and then the stranger
spoke in a tone of voice which looked as if he were struggling with some
emotion. "Sir, you do know more of me than many. You know what I have been, and
you know how I left an occupation which would have made me loathed. But
you--even you--do not know what made me take to so terrible a
trade." --"I do not." "Would it suit you for me now to tell you?" --"Will you first promise me
that you will do all you can for this persecuted family of the
Bannerworths, in whom I take so strange an interest?" "I will. I promise you that freely. Of my own knowledge, of course, I
can say but little concerning them, but, upon that warranting, I well
believe they deserve abundant sympathy, and from me they shall have it." "A thousand thanks! With your assistance, I have little doubt of being
able to extricate them from the tangled web of dreadful incidents which
has turned them from their home; and now, whatever you may choose to
tell me of the cause which drove you to be what you became, I shall
listen to with abundant interest. Only let me beseech you to come into
this summer-house, and to talk low." "I will, and you can pursue your watch at the same time, while I beguile
its weariness." --"Be it so." "You knew me years ago, when I had all the chances in the world of
becoming respectable and respected.