While the woman was panting forth some sort of an answer to this, a gust of wind extinguished the candle, and under cover of the darkness they heard her withdraw across the roof, and go groaning through the scuttle. Now that their own light was out, that which came through the crevice in the floor was plain once more; and acting upon the same impulse, both boys looked down into the room below.
From the heap of débris formed by the collapsed stairway, the three men were just arising, and their voices were raised in bitter exclamations against those who had been the cause of their mishaps.
“They were awake,” declared the landlord as he rubbed his hurts and limped about. “They overheard what we were saying and were waiting for me.”
“You’re a numskull!” stormed Tobias Hawkins. “Why did you not say that there was some chance of their hearing us?”
“How was I to know that they were not asleep?” groaned the man. “Oh, my head, my head!”
“It’s a thousand pities that he didn’t break your head,” growled Sugden, trying to remove the traces of the fall from his clothes. “But come,” his eyes glowing evilly, “show us the way you reached them; this time they’ll not come off first best, I promise you.”
The boys, as they watched, saw the man take out a heavy pistol.
“This way to the ladder that leads to the loft,” said the landlord, pointing to the inner door; “then to the roof itself, and——”
“Enough of that!” here broke in Tobias Hawkins. The watchers saw him gesture upward with one hand, as though warning them that if the lads had heard what they had planned previously, they would be likely to do so again. Then the man began speaking in a low tone which neither Ben nor Paddy could catch distinctly. While he talked the landlord secured a short-barreled musket from a closet, and Sugden examined his pistol with attention. A great deal of Hawkins’ low-voiced talk seemed to be the asking of questions; the landlord answered with much gesturing and pointing. And while this was in progress the huge landlady come rolling in, and with great spirit and panting eagerness entered into whatever plans were being made.
“As I look at her,” said Paddy Burk, “faith, I see not a one of them who’s more anxious to do us harm than she is.”