In descending the spiral stairs, he came to a narrow window, which
overlooked the moat, and from thence he saw Tamar lingering on the other
side thereof. He stood a moment and she called to him; her words were
these,--"Have you sped?" in reply to which, protruding his head through
the narrow aperture, he said: "No! the man's a low and despicable
deceiver," adding other terms which were by no means measured by the
rules of prudence or even courtesy; these words were not, however, lost
on Tamar, and by what she then heard, she was induced to take a measure
which had she deliberated longer thereon, she might not have
ventured upon.
Dymock having spent his breath and his indignation through the window,
to the disturbance of sundry bats and daws, which resided in the roof of
the Tower, was become so calm that he made the rest of his descent in
his usually tranquil and sluggish style, and even before he had crossed
the court towards the draw-bridge, he had made up his mind to get Shanty
to settle this knotty business, feeling that the old blacksmith would
have been the proper person to have done it from the first.
Jacob, the ugly, ill-conditioned serving-man, was waiting to turn the
light bridge, and had Dymock looked upon him, he would have seen that
there was triumph on the features of this deformed animal, for Jacob was
in all his master's secrets; he knew that he meant to cheat the Laird,
and he being Salmon's foster brother, already counted upon his master's
riches as his own.
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