Mr Willet stared after them, listened,
looked down upon himself to make quite sure that he was still unbound,
and, without any manifestation of impatience, disappointment, or
surprise, gently relapsed into the condition from which he had so
imperfectly recovered.
Mr Haredale tied his horse to the trunk of a tree, and grasping his
companion's arm, stole softly along the footpath, and into what had
been the garden of his house. He stopped for an instant to look upon its
smoking walls, and at the stars that shone through roof and floor upon
the heap of crumbling ashes. Solomon glanced timidly in his face, but
his lips were tightly pressed together, a resolute and stern expression
sat upon his brow, and not a tear, a look, or gesture indicating grief,
escaped him.
He drew his sword; felt for a moment in his breast, as though he carried
other arms about him; then grasping Solomon by the wrist again, went
with a cautious step all round the house. He looked into every doorway
and gap in the wall; retraced his steps at every rustling of the air
among the leaves; and searched in every shadowed nook with outstretched
hands. Thus they made the circuit of the building: but they returned
to the spot from which they had set out, without encountering any human
being, or finding the least trace of any concealed straggler.
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