Then I told him what I had seen, and he looked at the packet, his brow knitting as he tried to make it out.
“I ought to have come round and given the alarm, captain,” I said bitterly.
“Yes, my good fellow, you ought,” he said; “and I ought to have had that black scoundrel under lock and key days ago. But it is too late now to talk of what ought to have been done; we must talk of what there is to do.—But are you hurt?”
“He sent his knife through my jacket, sir,” I said, “but it’s only a scratch on the skin;” and fortunately that’s what it proved to be, for we had no room for wounded men, since we should have them soon enough.
Story 1--Chapter XI.
An hour of council, and then another—our two leaders not seeming to agree as to the extent of the coming danger. Challenge from the west roof:
“Orderly in sight.”
Sure enough, a man on horseback riding very slowly, and as if his horse was dead beat.
“Surely it isn’t that poor fellow come back, because his horse has failed? He ought to have walked on,” said Captain Dyer.