Page:Between Two Loves.djvu/209

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204
BETWEEN TWO LOVES.

think o' me toiling and tewing to save Aske! It's past believing! My word, but God sends men on strange errands, and they go, too!"

He did not sleep much, and when he did sleep he was still aware of that helpless, bleeding form which he had supported in his arms. Once he dreamed that he had been the murderer of Aske, and he awoke in a sweat of agony. Then he realized how justly Christ Jesus declared the man who harbored murderous thoughts to be as morally guilty as the man who puts them into practice. He arose several times during the night and knelt down and thanked God because he had given him grace to save the man whom often in his heart he had ardently longed to kill.

In the morning he had a note from Eleanor. She said an eminent London surgeon had been telegraphed for, but that the local physicians thought the case almost hopeless. There was already violent inflammation of the brain. The young Squire of Aske was lying unconscious on the verge of a bloody and untimely grave. The motive tor the attack had evidently been robbery. Aske had been to Leeds, and had drawn a large sum of money from the Spinner's Bank. Both it