"Wha-a-at, two m-m-men with mus-us-kets?" said the hero, his rumbling bass-baritone voice suddenly dwindling into a piping treble. "Where are they?" All his longing for death had instantly vanished, and he immediately released his victim from his embrace.
I indicated the approaching strangers with my toasting-fork. "There!"
Then he also saw them.
"Br-r-rother, those are gend-end-end-armes!"
"Possibly they are gend-end-armes, for there are two of them."
"Put out the fire at once!"
"I would if I could, but I can't now. And if I did, what good would that do? They have seen it already."
"I told you not to make a fire here."
But now Bessy turned furiously upon him.
"It is your stagey spouting that has saddled us with them. What business had you to go declaiming on the mountain tops? The people fancy you are murdering some one."