The tone in which these words were spoken attracted Nat’s attention at once. He had known the dwarf but a short time, but he had come to understand that when he spoke in a certain way he was very much in earnest.
“Has anything happened?” asked the lad from the north.
The other shook his head dubiously.
“I don’t know,” answered he. “But I should say something is going to, unless the signs are all wrong.”
Nat looked at the speaker attentively; but as usual he did not try to hurry him.
“As this is the inn where I felt sure you’d stay for the night,” proceeded the Porcupine, “I came here as soon as Simon had tied up the sloop at his place about a mile above. The landlady is a good sort, for when she saw me standing about the door, she gave me some bread and cheese, and I came over here in the shade to eat it. And while I sat here, a man came up—a strange-appearing man with gold rings in his ears and the look of a gypsy.
“‘Good afternoon,’ he says as he gets sight of me.
“I, politely enough, bid him the time of day and fell to studying him as he stood there looking up at the inn. He carried a heavy staff and pack upon his back. As he came along, I had noticed that he limped like one footsore from a long journey; but for all, he seemed cool and clean. There was but little dust upon his shoes and none at all upon his stockings.”
“THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG, THEN”