With an effort which seemed supernatural, the dying woman raised herself
with a sudden start in the bed, and her eyes glared upon him with a
threatening horror, and her lips parting, disclosed the broken and
decayed teeth beneath, ineffectually gnashing, while her long, skinny
fingers warned him away. All this time she appeared to speak, but the
words were unarticulated, though, from the expression of every feature,
it was evident that indignation and reproach made up the entire amount
of everything she had to express. The outlaw was not easily influenced
by anger so impotent as this; and, from his manner of receiving it, it
appeared that he had been for some time accustomed to a reception of a
like kind from the same person. He approached the young girl, who had
now risen from her knees, and spoke to her in words of comparative
kindness:--
"Well, Ellen, you have had an alarm, but I am glad to see you have
suffered no injury. How happened the fire?"
The young woman explained the cause of the conflagration, and narrated
in brief the assistance which had been received from the stranger.
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