CHAPTER XVIII THE BATTLE OF THE RACCOON
Mrs. Atchison met the returning adventurers at the door.
"Your conduct, Jerry Dangerfield, is beyond words!" she exclaimed, seizing the girl's hands. "And so you really locked that horrid person in a real jail! Well, we shan't miss him! We have been kept up all night by the arrival here of other prisoners—brought in like parcels from the grocer's."
"More prisoners!" shouted Ardmore.
"Dragged here at an unearthly hour of the morning, and flung into the most impossible places by your soldiers! You can hear them yelling without much trouble from the drawing-room, and we had to give up breakfast because the racket they are making was so annoying."
The captain of the battery whose guns frowned upon the terraces came up and saluted.
"Mr. Ardmore," he said, "I have been trying for several hours to see Governor Dangerfield, but this lady tells me that he has left Ardsley."
"That is quite true; the governor was called away last night on official business, and he will not return for an hour or two. You will kindly state your business to me."
The captain was peevish from loss of sleep, and by no means certain that he cared to transact business with Mr. Ardmore. He glanced at Miss Dangerfield, whom he had met often at Raleigh, and the governor's daughter met the situation promptly.
"Captain Webb, what prisoners have you taken, and why are they not gagged to prevent this hideous noise?"