"Don't be a fool," said the admiral; "put out the light and give me the
pistols, or blaze away yourself into the garden; a chance shot may do
something. It's no use running after him; a stern chase is a long chase;
but fire away." As if some parties below had heard him give the word, two loud reports
from the garden immediately ensued, and a crash of glass testified to
the fact that some deadly missile had entered the room. "Murder!" said the doctor, and he fell flat upon his back. "I don't like
this at all; it's all in your line, admiral, but not in mine." "All's right, my lad," said the admiral; "now for it." He saw lying in the moonlight the pistols which he and the doctor had
brought into the room, and in another moment he, to use his own words,
returned the broadside of the enemy. "D--n it!" he said, "this puts me in mind of old times. Blaze away, you
thieves, while I load; broadside to broadside. It's your turn now; I
scorn to take an advantage. What the devil's that?" Something very large and very heavy came bang against the window,
sending it all into the room, and nearly smothering the admiral with the
fragments. Another shot was then fired, and in came something else,
which hit the wall on the opposite side of the room, rebounding from
thence on to the doctor, who gave a yell of despair. After that all was still; the enemy seemed to be satisfied that they had
silenced the garrison. And it took the admiral a great deal of kicking
and plunging to rescue himself from some superincumbent mass that was
upon him, which seemed to him to be a considerable sized tree. "Call this fair fighting," he shouted--"getting a man's legs and arms
tangled up like a piece of Indian matting in the branches of a tree? Doctor, I say! hilloa! where are you?" "I don't know," said the doctor; "but there's somebody getting into the
balcony--now we shall be murdered in cold blood!" "Where's the pistols?" "Fired off, of course; you did it yourself." Bang came something else into the room, which, from the sound it made,
closely resembled a brick, and after that somebody jumped clean into the
centre of the floor, and then, after rolling and writhing about in a
most singular manner, slowly got up, and with various preliminary
hiccups, said,--

"Come on, you lubbers, many of you as like. I'm the tar for all
weathers." "Why, d----e," said the admiral, "it's Jack Pringle." "Yes, it is," said Jack, who was not sufficiently sober to recognise the
admiral's voice. "I sees as how you've heard of me. Come on, all of
you." "Why, Jack, you scoundrel," roared the admiral, "how came you here? Don't you know me? I'm your admiral, you horse-marine." "Eh?" said Jack. "Ay--ay, sir, how came you here?" "How came you, you villain?" "Boarded the enemy." "The enemy who you boarded was us; and hang me if I don't think you
haven't been pouring broadsides into us, while the enemy were scudding
before the wind in another direction." "Lor!" said Jack. "Explain, you scoundrel, directly--explain." "Well, that's only reasonable," said Jack; and giving a heavier lurch
than usual, he sat down with a great bounce upon the floor. "You see
it's just this here,--when I was a coming of course I heard, just as I
was a going, that ere as made me come all in consequence of somebody a
going, or for to come, you see, admiral." "Doctor," cried the admiral, in a great rage, "just help me out of this
entanglement of branches, and I'll rid the world from an encumbrance by
smashing that fellow." "Smash yourself!" said Jack. "You know you're drunk." "My dear admiral," said Mr. Chillingworth, laying hold of one of his
legs, and pulling it very hard, which brought his face into a lot of
brambles, "we're making a mess of this business." "Murder!" shouted the admiral; "you are indeed. Is that what you call
pulling me out of it? You've stuck me fast." "I'll manage it," said Jack. "I've seed him in many a scrape, and I've
seed him out. You pull me, doctor, and I'll pull him. Yo hoy!" Jack laid hold of the admiral by the scuff of the neck, and the doctor
laid hold of Jack round the waist, the consequence of which was that he
was dragged out from the branches of the tree, which seemed to have been
thrown into the room, and down fell both Jack and the doctor. At this instant there was a strange hissing sound heard below the
window; then there was a sudden, loud report, as if a hand-grenade had
gone off. A spectral sort of light gleamed into the room, and a tall,
gaunt-looking figure rose slowly up in the balcony. "Beware of the dead!" said a voice. "Let the living contend with the
living, the dead with the dead. Beware!" The figure disappeared, as did also the strange, spectral-looking light. A death-like silence ensued, and the cold moonbeams streamed in upon the
floor of the apartment, as if nothing had occurred to disturb the
wrapped repose and serenity of the scene. CHAPTER LIX. THE WARNING.--THE NEW PLAN OF OPERATION.--THE INSULTING MESSAGE FROM
VARNEY. [Illustration]

So much of the night had been consumed in these operations, that by the
time they were over, and the three personages who lay upon the floor of
what might be called the haunted chamber of Bannerworth Hall, even had
they now been disposed to seek repose, would have had a short time to do
so before the daylight would have streamed in upon them, and roused them
to the bustle of waking existence. It may be well believed what a vast amount of surprise came over the
three persons in that chamber at the last little circumstance that had
occurred in connection with the night's proceedings. There was nothing which had preceded that, that did not resemble a
genuine attack upon the premises; but about that last mysterious
appearance, with its curious light, there was quite enough to bother the
admiral and Jack Pringle to a considerable effect, whatever might be the
effect upon Mr. Chillingworth, whose profession better enabled him to
comprehend, chemically, what would produce effects that, no doubt,
astonished them amazingly. What with his intoxication and the violent exercise he had taken, Jack
was again thoroughly prostrate; while the admiral could not have looked
more astonished had the evil one himself appeared in _propria persona_
and given him notice to quit the premises. He was, however, the first to speak, and the words he spoke were
addressed to Jack, to whom he said,--

"Jack, you lubber, what do you think of all that?" Jack, however, was too far gone even to say "Ay, ay, sir;" and Mr.
Chillingworth, slowly getting himself up to his feet, approached the
admiral. "It's hard to say so much, Admiral Bell," he said, "but it strikes me
that whatever object this Sir Francis Varney, or Varney, the vampyre,
has in coming into Bannerworth Hall, it is, at all events, of sufficient
importance to induce him to go any length, and not to let even a life to
stand in the way of its accomplishment."