With a strange sinking at the heart I asked about our horses.
"They will be attended to, my sirs; my servant is a good boy. He is handy, although he can't get about lively, for he was thrown in a turnip field from our only donkey."
I was in no mood for this sort of chatter and quizzed the fellow as to our beds.
"We must be off early in the morning; we have important business to transact at Amboise before the sun sets to-morrow," I testily remarked.
"At Amboise—h'm, h'm! Well, I don't mind telling you that you can reach Amboise by stroke of noon; and so you have business at Amboise, eh?"
I saw Michael's brow lower at this wheedling little man's question, and answered rather hastily and imprudently:—
"Yes, business, my good man, important business, as you will see when we return this road to-morrow night with the prize we are after."
Michael jumped up and cried "Damnation!" and I at once saw my mistake. The landlord's manner instantly altered. He looked at me triumphantly and said:—
"Beds, beds! but, my honoured sirs, I have no beds in the house. I forgot to tell you that no guest has been upstairs in years, for certain reasons. Indeed, sirs, I am so embarrassed! I should have told you at once I have only a day trade. My regular customers would not dare to stop here over night, as the house,"—here a cunning, even sinister, look spread over the fellow's fat face—"the house bears an evil reputation."
Michael started and crossed himself, but not I. I suspected some deep devilry and determined to discover it.