“Well, I’m damned!” said Leslie.
“I touched his heel, and I suppose he thought it was one of the devils—mad fool!”
“’Tis no madness,” said Mac. “If ever I saw a man chased by deevils I’ve seen one now. ’Twas that mark you made let them loose, or my name’s not Tod M’Gourley. Did you no ken you were makin’ the sign of the cross in yon damned circle of his? Hech, man! Look there!”
“Where?”
“My God!” said M’Gourley, “look you there, there! There’s a bairn amongst the azaleas!”
“So there is!” said Leslie. “By Jove, a little Jap girl come out of the wood.”
“Dom it, man,” roared M’Gourley, “she wasn’t there twarree seconds ago. She’s come out of no wood; she’s been fetched.”
“Well, of all the superstitious idiots!” said Leslie, gazing from the perspiring M’Gourley to the figure of the quaint and pretty little Japanese girl who was busy amidst the azaleas plucking the blossoms. “Why, it wouldn’t take her more than ‘twarree seconds’ to come out of the wood. Anyhow, I’ll go and see if she’s real.”
“Man! man! hauld back!” cried the agonized M’Gourley as his partner plunged amidst the bushes. “Ye’ll be had; she’s a bogle. Lord’s sake! Lord’s sake! Well, gang your own gate, I’m off to Nikko.”
Yet he waited.