him by the wrist.

"Northmour," I remember saying, "you can kill me afterwards. Let us
first attend to Clara."

He was at that moment uppermost. Scarcely had the words passed my lips,
when he had leaped to his feet and ran towards the tent; and the next
moment he was straining Clara to his heart and covering her unconscious
hands and face with his caresses.

"Shame!" I cried. "Shame to you, Northmour!"

And, giddy though I still was, I struck him repeatedly upon the head and
shoulders.

He relinquished his grasp, and faced me in the broken moonlight.

"I had you under, and I let you go," said he; "and now you strike me!
Coward!"

"You are the coward," I retorted. "Did she wish your kisses while she
was still sensible of what she wanted? Not she! And now she may be
dying; and you waste this precious time, and abuse her helplessness.
Stand aside, and let me help her."

He confronted me for a moment, white and menacing; then suddenly he
stepped aside.

"Help her, then," said he.

I threw myself on my knees beside her, and loosened, as well as I was
able, her dress and corset; but while I was thus engaged, a grasp
descended on my shoulder.

"Keep your hands off her," said Northmour fiercely. "Do you think I have
no blood in my veins?"

"Northmour," I cried, "if you will neither help her yourself, nor let me
do so, do you know that I shall have to kill you?"

"That is better!" he cried. "Let her die also--where's the harm? Step
aside from that girl, and stand up to fight!"

"You will observe," said I, half-rising, "that I have not kissed her
yet."

"I dare you to," he cried.

I do not know what possessed me; it was one of the things I am most
ashamed of in my life, though, as my wife used to say, I knew that my
kisses would be always welcome were she dead or living; down I fell
again upon my knees, parted the hair from her forehead, and, with the
dearest respect, laid my lips for a moment on that cold brow. It was
such a caress as a father might have given; it was such a one as was not
unbecoming from a man soon to die to a woman already dead.

"And now," said I, "I am at your service, Mr Northmour."

But I saw, to my surprise, that he had turned his back upon me.

"Do you hear?" I asked.

"Yes," said he, "I do. If you wish to fight, I am ready. If not, go on
and save Clara. All is one to me."

I did not wait to be twice bidden; but, stooping again over Clara,
continued my efforts to revive her.