“If he doesn’t get the tobacco he’ll be hung for a spy,” said Johnny Crapaud, turning on his heel. “Do we all agree?” said the corporal.
The others nodded their heads, and, as they went out, McGilveray said after them:
“I’ll dance a jig on yer sepulchrees, ye swobs!” he roared, and he spat on the ground again in defiance. Johnny Crapaud turned to the corporal.
“I’ll kill him very dead,” said he, “if that tobacco doesn’t come. You tell him so,” he added, jerking a thumb towards McGilveray. “You tell him so.”
The corporal stayed when the others went out, and, in broken English, told McGilveray so.
“I’ll play a hornpipe, an’ his gory shroud is round him,” said McGilveray.
The corporal grinned from ear to ear. “You like a chew tabac?” said he, pulling out a dirty knob of a black plug.
McGilveray had found a man after his own heart. “Sing a song a-sixpence,” said he, “what sort’s that for a gintleman an’ a corporal, too? Feel in me trousies pocket,” said he, “which is fur me frinds for iver.” McGilveray had now hopes of getting free, but if he had not taken a fancy to “me baby corporal,” as he called the Frenchman, he would have made escape or release impossible, by insulting him and every one of them as quick as winking.
After the corporal had emptied one pocket, “Now the other, man-o-wee-wee!” said McGilveray, and presently the two were drinking what the flask from the “trousies pocket” contained. So well did McGilveray work upon the Frenchman’s bonhomie that the corporal promised he should escape. He explained how McGilveray should be freed—that at midnight some one would come and release him, while he, the corporal, was with his companions, so avoiding suspicion as to his own complicity. McGilveray and the corporal were to meet again and exchange courtesies after the manner of brothers—if the fortunes of war permitted.
McGilveray was left alone. To while away the time he began to whistle to himself, and what with whistling, and what with winking and talking to the lantern on the table, and calling himself painful names, he endured his captivity well enough.