IX

I should have the greatest difficulty to tell you what followed next after this tragic circumstance.  It is all to me, as I look back upon it, mixed, strenuous, and ineffectual, like the struggles of a sleeper in a nightmare.  Clara, I remember, uttered a broken sigh and would have fallen forward to earth, had not Northmour and I supported her insensible body.  I do not think we were attacked:  I do not remember even to have seen an assailant; and I believe we deserted Mr. Huddlestone without a glance.  I only remember running like a man in a panic, now carrying Clara altogether in my own arms, now sharing her weight with Northmour, now scuffling confusedly for the possession of that dear burden.  Why we should have made for my camp in the Hemlock Den, or how we reached it, are points lost forever to my recollection.  The first moment at which I became definitely sure, Clara had been suffered to fall against the outside of my little tent, Northmour and I were tumbling together on the ground, and he, with contained ferocity, was striking for my head with the butt of his revolver.  He had already twice wounded me on the scalp; and it is to the consequent loss of blood that I am tempted to attribute the sudden clearness of my mind.

I caught him by the wrist.

“Northmour,” I remember saying, “you can kill me afterwards.  Let us first attend to Clara.”

He was at that moment uppermost.  Scarcely had the words passed my lips, when he had leaped to his feet and ran toward the tent; and the next moment, he was straining Clara to his heart and covering her unconscious hands and face with his caresses.

“Shame!” I cried.  “Shame to you, Northmour!”

And, giddy though I still was, I struck him repeatedly upon the head and shoulders.

He relinquished his grasp, and faced me in the broken moonlight.

“I had you under, and I let you go,” said he; “and now you strike me!  Coward!”

“You are the coward,” I retorted.  “Did she wish your kisses while she was still sensible of what you wanted?  Not she!  And now she may be dying; and you waste this precious time, and abuse her helplessness.  Stand aside, and let me help her.”

He confronted me for a moment, white and menacing; then suddenly he stepped aside.

“Help her then,” said he.

I threw myself on my knees beside her, and loosened, as well as I was able, her dress and corset; but while I was thus engaged, a grasp descended on my shoulder.

“Keep your hands off her,” said Northmour, fiercely.  “Do you think I have no blood in my veins?”

“Northmour,” I cried, “if you will neither help her yourself, nor let me do so, do you know that I shall have to kill you?”

“That is better!” he cried.  “Let her die also, where’s the harm?  Step aside from that girl! and stand up to fight.”

“You will observe,” said I, half rising, “that I have not kissed her yet.”