He tore up the letter which contained the challenge into a hundred pieces, and threw them in the grate.
“Now Mr.—or captain—you had better be off, or, may be, you and I shall quarrel.”
“I hope not, I’m sure,” returned Bradley. “I have not done anything to offend you that I am aware of.”
“There be an old adage, ‘Ye may know a man by his friends,—and if Mr. Fortescue, as he choses to call himself, is a friend of yourn—well, I wouldn’t gi’ much for ’ee; that be all I ha’ to say.”
“You are complimentary, Mr. Ashbrook,” said Bradley, with a sneer.
“Horse be ready, master,” cried Joe Doughty from the yard.
There, your—or rather his—horse be ready. Ye’d better mount and be off, or may be we shall find out something about you. What regiment are you captain of?”
“What regiment? oh, the 3rd West Middlesex.”
“Oh, you’re in the volunteer service?”
“Ahem! yes.”