Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/402

"Yes?"

"Wud of theb cobbudicates with the sash of your bed-roob widdow, add the other with the haddle of the door. Resolved od ascertaididg, if possible, whether you were a sobdabbulist or dot, I, idstead of goidg to bed, kept these stridgs id by hadd, out of which wud of theb, about two o'clock, was slowly drawd. I kdew id ad idstadt thed that you had opeded your door, add as I heard you goidg up stairs, I followed. You wedt idto the attic. I followed you there, add od lookidg roudd I could see dothidg of you. But I wedt to the widdow, add there I saw you walkidg upod the very verge of the parapet!"

"Good God!" exclaimed Sylvester; "is it possible?"

"There you were, add if I'd dot beed a fool, all would have beed well doubtless: you would have cobe id agaid, I've do doubt, id perfect safety. But to be, your positiod appeared to be so perilous, that actidg, as I said before, od the ibpulse of the bobedt, I seized your arb, add I'd doe sooder dode so thad you fell over the parapet, add there I held you. How I got you up agaid I cad't explaid. It is sufficiedt for be that I did get you up, add that here you are dow alive before be."

"My escape, then, must have been miraculous?"

"It was. I wouldd't see you id the sabe positiod agaid if ady bad were to lay be dowd a billiod of buddy. I shudder whed I think of it. Let us for a little while talk about sobethidg else. Wud thidg, however, is certaid: you are a sobdabbulist, Syl, add a very idveterate sobdabbulist too. I see dow, who it was that got be idto all those scrapes five or six years ago. You're ad old hadd at it. There was parapet business goidg od thed! Dod't you rebebber?"

"I do," replied Sylvester, "and innumerable other things which have appeared to me to be mysteries, are now solved."

"Dod't you recollect by study? Dod't you rebebber what a gabe you used to have id it dight after dight? I see it all dow, add I shall tell the goverdor of it id triubph, for I feel codvidced that, to this day, he believes that the whole of by eardest declaratiods of iddocedce were false. You it was that caused the destructiod of that wobad I used to prize so highly: it was also you that sbashed by glass just before you left towd. This explaids all! Jib's character is viddicated, add you are codvicted. I shall bridg ad actiod agaidst you, old fellow, for dabages."

"Do so," said Sylvester, smiling, "and I'll plead 'somnambulism' to it. However," he added, seriously, "the proof is now clear. That Sir Charles and his servant saw me I can now have no doubt. What effect the proof will have in the forthcoming trial of course remains to be seen."

"The effect will be to give you a verdict," said Tom. "There cad be doe doubt about that."

"I don't know. I fear that they will require it to be proved that I was in a state of somnambulism then. But, independently of this affair, isn't the fact of my being a somnambulist awful to contemplate? I can never be safe!"

"Doď't let's have ady bore horrible reflectiods. We have had sufficiedt horror for wud dight, at least. I'll take care of you, by boy, for