“Shure an’ I don’t want to go, Masther Dick. I seen enough of the baste last night.”
“Yes, but you must come and show us.”
“Shure an’ Masther Chicory there will lade you to the very spot, and I couldn’t do any more. He lies did bechuckst two big lumps of sthone, an’, as I said, he’s as big as a waggin.”
“Oh, but Dinny must come,” said Mr Rogers.
“Shure an’ how will I get the breakfast riddy if I come, sor?” persisted Dinny. “I did my duty last night. You gintlemen must go and fetch him home.”
But Dinny’s protestations passed unheeded, and he had to go with the party, shouldering his rifle like a raw recruit, but glancing uneasily to right and left as they went along.
Dick observed this, and said quietly,—
“What a lot of poisonous snakes there are amongst these stones!”
Dinny gave a spasmodic jump, and lifting his feet gingerly, deposited them in the barest places he could find; and for the rest of the journey he did not once take his eyes off the ground.
As it happened they had not gone fifty yards farther before they came upon a great swollen puff-adder, lying right in their path.