CHAPTER V.
MADAME AND "THE PRINCESS."
For once the old man was sitting quite still, doing nothing, unless you can call smoking a very dirty and ill-smelling pipe an occupation. He nodded to them and puffed away, saying between his whiffs,—
"How d'ye do, stranger? You agin, Mort? Set daown, both on ye; settin's jest as cheap as standin' raound here," indicating the bench on the other side of the door with a blackened thumb.
But neither cared to sit, and Morton lost no time in coming to business.
"He wants to go gunning with us in the morning, Uncle Adam, may he?"
Adam eyed the young man, who returned his gaze with frank, smiling eyes, without speaking.
"Kin ye shoot?" asked the old sportsman at last.
"A little," modestly.
"Waal, what—tame turkeys?" contemptuously.