For a few moments the expiring torch still showed them each
other's hot, vindictive faces; then they battled in the dark, with
laboring breath and eager strain, swaying they knew not whither. At last
the huge weight of Solomon overbore his lesser antagonist. Richard's
limbs gave way beneath him, and he fell, but fell through space; for in
their gyrations they had, without knowing it, returned to the top of the
ladder. His foe, fast clutched, fell with him, but, pitching on his
head, was killed, as we have seen, upon the instant.
This was the true history of what had occurred in the mine, as Richard,
on his bed of pain, recalled it step by step, and strove to shape it to
his ends.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
MAKING PEACE.
Whether Richard's own injuries proved fatal or not was with him a matter
of secondary importance. His anxiety was to prove that they were
received by misadventure; upon the whole, matters promised favorably for
this, and were in other respects as satisfactory as could reasonably be
expected. The blood of Solomon Coe was upon his own head. Richard had no
need even to reproach himself with having struck in self-defense the
blow that killed his enemy; and he did not reflect that he was still to
blame for having, in the first instance, placed him in the mine.
Pages:
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592