It was from that apartment that Flora had discharged the pistol, which
had been left to her by her brother, and the shot from which it was
believed by the whole family had most certainly taken effect upon the
person of the vampyre. It was a room peculiarly accessible from the gardens, for it had long
French windows opening to the very ground, and but a stone step
intervened between the flooring of the apartment and a broad gravel walk
which wound round that entire portion of the house. It was in this room, then, that two men sat in silence, and nearly in
darkness. Before them, and on a table, were several articles of refreshment, as
well of defence and offence, according as their intentions might be. There were a bottle and three glasses, and lying near the elbow of one
of the men was a large pair of pistols, such as might have adorned the
belt of some desperate character, who wished to instil an opinion of his
prowess into his foes by the magnitude of his weapons. Close at hand, by the same party, lay some more modern fire arms, as
well as a long dirk, with a silver mounted handle. The light they had consisted of a large lantern, so constructed with a
slide, that it could be completely obscured at a moment's notice; but
now as it was placed, the rays that were allowed to come from it were
directed as much from the window of the apartment, as possible, and fell
upon the faces of the two men, revealing them to be Admiral Bell and Dr.
Chillingworth. It might have been the effect of the particular light in which he sat,
but the doctor looked extremely pale, and did not appear at all at his
ease. The admiral, on the contrary, appeared in as placable a state of mind as
possible and had his arms folded across his breast, and his head shrunk
down between his shoulders as if he had made up his mind to something
that was to last a long time, and, therefore he was making the best of
it. "I do hope," said Mr. Chillingworth, after a long pause, "that our
efforts will be crowned with success--you know, my dear sir, that I have
always been of your opinion, that there was a great deal more in this
matter than met the eye." "To be sure," said the admiral, "and as to our efforts being crowned
with success, why, I'll give you a toast, doctor, 'may the morning's
reflection provide for the evening's amusement.'" "Ha! ha!" said Chillingworth, faintly; "I'd rather not drink any more,
and you seem, admiral, to have transposed the toast in some way. I
believe it runs, 'may the evening's amusement bear the morning's
reflection.'" "Transpose the devil!" said the admiral; "what do I care how it runs? I
gave you my toast, and as to that you mention, it's another one
altogether, and a sneaking, shore-going one too: but why don't you
drink?" "Why, my dear sir, medically speaking, I am strongly of opinion that,
when the human stomach is made to contain a large quantity of alcohol,
it produces bad effects upon the system. Now, I've certainly taken one
glass of this infernally strong Hollands, and it is now lying in my
stomach like the red-hot heater of a tea-urn." "Is it? put it out with another, then." "Ay, I'm afraid that would not answer, but do you really think, admiral,
that we shall effect anything by waiting here, and keeping watch and
ward, not under the most comfortable circumstances, this first night of
the Hall being empty." "Well, I don't know that we shall," said the admiral; "but when you
really want to steal a march upon the enemy, there is nothing like
beginning betimes. We are both of opinion that Varney's great object
throughout has been, by some means or another, to get possession of the
house." "Yes; true, true." "We know that he has been unceasing in his endeavours to get the
Bannerworth family out of it; that he has offered them their own price
to become its tenant, and that the whole gist of his quiet and placid
interview with Flora in the garden, was to supply her with a new set of
reasons for urging her mother and brother to leave Bannerworth Hall,
because the old ones were certainly not found sufficient." "True, true, most true," said Mr. Chillingworth, emphatically. "You
know, sir, that from the first time you broached that view of the
subject to me, how entirely I coincided with you." "Of course you did, for you are a honest fellow, and a right-thinking
fellow, though you are a doctor, and I don't know that I like doctors
much better than I like lawyers--they're only humbugs in a different
sort of way. But I wish to be liberal; there is such a thing as an
honest lawyer, and, d----e, you're an honest doctor!" "Of course I'm much obliged, admiral, for your good opinion. I only wish
it had struck me to bring something of a solid nature in the shape of
food, to sustain the waste of the animal economy during the hours we
shall have to wait here." "Don't trouble yourself about that," said the admiral. "Do you think I'm
a donkey, and would set out on a cruise without victualling my ship? I
should think not. Jack Pringle will be here soon, and he has my orders
to bring in something to eat." "Well," said the doctor, "that's very provident of you, admiral, and I
feel personally obliged; but tell me, how do you intend to conduct the
watch?" "What do you mean?" "Why, I mean, if we sit here with the window fastened so as to prevent
our light from being seen, and the door closed, how are we by any
possibility to know if the house is attacked or not?" "Hark'ee, my friend," said the admiral; "I've left a weak point for the
enemy." "A what, admiral?" "A weak point. I've taken good care to secure everything but one of the
windows on the ground floor, and that I've left open, or so nearly open,
that it will look like the most natural place in the world to get in at. Now, just inside that window, I've placed a lot of the family crockery. I'll warrant, if anybody so much as puts his foot in, you'll hear the
smash;--and, d----e, there it is!" There was a loud crash at this moment, followed by a succession of
similar sounds, but of a lesser degree; and both the admiral and Mr.
Chillingworth sprung to their feet. "Come on," cried the former; "here'll be a precious row--take the
lantern." Mr. Chillingworth did so, but he did not seem possessed of a great deal
of presence of mind; for, before they got out of the room, he twice
accidentally put on the dark slide, and produced a total darkness. "D--n!" said the admiral; "don't make it wink and wink in that way; hold
it up, and run after me as hard as you can." "I'm coming, I'm coming," said Mr. Chillingworth. It was one of the windows of a long room, containing five, fronting the
garden, which the admiral had left purposely unguarded; and it was not
far from the apartment in which they had been sitting, so that,
probably, not half a minute's time elapsed between the moment of the
first alarm, and their reaching the spot from whence it was presumed to
arise.