Wait at least for the
morning, and the good news it may bring."
The other shook his head. "I will go now. I could not look my
friend in the face else - God in heaven!"
The Governor sprang to his feet; through the Treasurer's lips came
a long, sighing breath; West's dark face was ashen. I came forward
to the table, and leaned my weight upon it; for all the waves of the
sea were roaring in my ears, and the lights were going up and
down.
"Are you man or spirit?" cried Rolfe through white lips. "Are you
Ralph Percy?"
"Yes, I am Percy," I said. "I have not well understood what quest
you would go upon, Rolfe, but you cannot go to-night. And those
parties that your Honor talked of, that have gone with Indians to
guide them to look for some lost person, - I think that you will
never see them again."
With an effort I drew myself erect, and standing so told my tidings,
quietly and with circumstance, so as to leave no room for doubt as
to their verity, or as to the sanity of him who brought them. They
listened, as the warder had listened, with shaking limbs and
gasping breath; for this was the fall and wiping out of a people of
which I brought warning.
When all was told, and they stood there before me, white and
shaken, seeking in their minds the thing to say or do first, I thought
to ask a question myself; but before my tongue could frame it, the
roaring of the sea became so loud that I could hear naught else,
and the lights all ran together into a wheel of fire.
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