[The Companions of Jehu by Alexandre Dumas, pere]@TWC D-Link bookThe Companions of Jehu CHAPTER XVI 11/15
Feeling that the ghost would escape him, he cried: "Man or ghost, robber or monk, halt or I fire!" "A dead body cannot be killed twice, and death has no power over the spirit," replied the ghost in its muffled voice. "Who are you ?" "The Shade of him you tore violently from the earth." The young officer burst into that harsh, nervous laugh, made more terrible by the darkness around him. "Faith!" said he, "if you have no further indications to give me, I shall not trouble myself to discover you." "Remember the fountain at Vaucluse," said the Shade, in a voice so faint the words seemed to escape his lips like a sigh rather than articulate speech. For an instant Roland felt, not his heart failing him, but the sweat pouring from his forehead.
Making an effort over himself, he regained his voice and cried, menacingly: "For a last time, apparition or reality, I warn you that, if you do not stop, I shall fire!" The Shade did not heed him, but continued on its way. Roland paused an instant to take aim.
The spectre was not ten paces from him.
Roland was a sure shot; he had himself loaded his pistols, and only a moment before he had looked to the charge to see that it was intact. As the spectre passed, tall and white, beneath the gloomy vault of the passage, Roland fired.
The flash illumined the corridor like lightning, down which the spectre passed with unfaltering, unhastening steps.
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