"Yes, sir, he commands two privateers at anchor down in the cove there."
The signal was now twice repeated. It was clear there were eaves-droppers abroad. Our host lay back sullenly in his chair.
"Ay! and what kind of craft may they be?"
I scarcely knew what I said, as the notion of the privateers, and of having gentry of the usual stamp of their crews in such near neighbourhood, was any thing but pleasant or comfortable.
"A schooner and a felucca, sir," said Mr *** in answer.
Some one now thundered against the weather-boarding of the house, making every thing shake again, as if a drunken man had fallen against a hollow bulk-head, and I heard a low, grumbling voice, as if in suppressed anger. I could see with half an eye that this had aroused the old gentleman to a sense of his danger, and made him pocket his peevishness; for he now set himself in his chair, screwing his withered features into a most taciturn expression.
"The Midge again," thought I, "by all that is unfortunate! Oh for a glimpse of Henry de Walden and his Spider!"
It is the devil and all to be watched—to have the consciousness that the very stones are listening to you, and ready to fly at your head, and no armour, offensive or defensive, about you.
A sort of desperation was in consequence coming over me; and I rapped out, but still speaking so low, that I considered it impossible I could be overheard by any one without——
"I think I know that same Captain Wallace's voice—I have heard it before, I am persuaded."