The whole of this brief dialogue, which had passed directly beside the recess in which the maiden and youth had taken shelter, was distinctly audible to them both.  The blood of Ralph boiled within him at this latter speech of the ruffian, in which he avowed a spirit of such dire malignity, as, in its utter disproportionateness to the supposed offence of the youth, could only have been sanctioned by the nature which he had declared to have always been his prompter; and, at its close, the arm of the youth, grasping his weapon, was involuntarily stretched forth, and an instant more would have found it buried in the bosom of the wretch—­but the action did not escape the quick eye of his companion, who, though trembling with undiminished terror, was yet mistress of all her senses, and perceived the ill-advised nature of his design.  With a motion equally involuntary and sudden with his own, her taper fingers grasped his wrist, and her eyes bright with dewy lustres, were directed upward, sweetly and appealingly to those which now bent themselves down upon her.  In that moment of excitement and impending terror, a consciousness of her situation and a sense of shame which more than ever agitated her, rushed through her mind, and she leaned against the side of the closet for that support for which her now revived and awakened scruples forbade any reference to him from whom she had so recently received it.  Still, there was nothing abrupt or unkind in her manner, and the youth did not hesitate again to place his arm around and in support of the form which, in reality, needed his strength.  In doing so, however, a slight noise was the consequence, which the quick sense of Rivers readily discerned.

“Hark!—­heard you nothing, Munro—­no sound?  Hear you no breathing?—­It seems at hand—­in that closet.”

“Thou hast a quick ear to-night, Guy, as well as a quick step.  I heard, and hear nothing, save the snorings of old Barton, whose chamber is just beside you to the left.  He has always had a reputation for the wild music which his nose contrives, during his sleep, to keep up in his neighborhood.”

“It came from the opposite quarter, Munro, and was not unlike the suppressed respiration of one who listens.”

“Pshaw! that can not be.  There is no chamber there.  That is but the old closet in which we store away lumber.  You are quite too regardful of your senses.  They will keep us here all night, and the fact is, I wish the business well over.”

“Where does Lucy sleep?”

“In the off shed-room below.  What of her?”

“Of her—­oh nothing!” and Rivers paused musingly in the utterance of this reply, which fell syllable by syllable from his lips.  The landlord proceeded:—­

“Pass on, Rivers; pass on:  or have you determined better about this matter?  Shall the youngster live?  Indeed, I see not that his evidence, even if he gives it, which I very much doubt, can do us much harm, seeing that a few days more will put us out of the reach of judge and jury alike.”