“Yes,” answered the boy.
“Then let your name be what you will,” said the one-legged man. “I have nothing to do with your likes and dislikes in such things. I was to meet you here, and I was to signal you. And then I was to see that your companion was not within ear-shot, after which I was to tell you that your stopping place shows a green light over the door. Once inside you are to ask for Master Bleekwood. He will tell you the rest.”
For a time Ben stood looking at the man; a score of questions were in his mind, but a natural caution even in the midst of his surprise prevented the asking of them. However, he ventured one:
“Why were not these instructions given me before I started?”
Again the man grinned; also he took his lantern as though about to move on.
“Perhaps,” said he, “you were not to be trusted. It sometimes happens, as you must know, if you are a person of any wide experience, that it does not do to make too complete a revelation of one’s plans at first—even to those whom we know the best.” He waved his lantern at Ben. “A good-night—or morning whichever it may be—to you, young sir. It’s over cold to be standing in the open. November nights are not like those of August.” He stumped away a short distance, then turned and placed his hand to his mouth that his voice might carry only in the direction he desired. “Remember, there is to be a green light showing over the door; and you are to ask for Master Bleekwood.”
Again he waved the lantern, and again he turned and went his way, the iron tip of the wooden leg ringing against the frozen ground.
In a few moments Ben had reached his horse and mounted; and in a few more he had imparted to Paddy what had passed. He had already informed the Irish lad concerning his conversation with Johnson Quinsey, and at this new cropping up of the name of Seaforth, Paddy was surprised.
“It’s queer enough,” he said, as they rode along, “to have one so quickly follow upon the heels of the other. ‘Beware of a man named Seaforth,’ says one man; and ‘Your name is Seaforth,’ says the other, for all the world as though he were expecting this same person.”
“Which he was, in point of fact,” said Ben. “He said he was sent to signal him, to say to him, privately, that he was to stop at a house which showed a green light above the door.”