“Still the matter did not end here, for next day the workmen said the accident was owing to the omission of a sacrifice at the commencement of the work, and they must have a lamb to kill on the ground, or more lives would certainly be lost. So I bought them a lamb, which they duly killed, cooked, and ate, after sprinkling its blood on the four corners of the foundation and on the walls. I had the skin of this lamb dressed and sent home as a curiosity.” See note 1.
“You appear to have pretty rough times of it then, on the whole,” said Miles.
“I never counted on smooth times,” returned Tufnell; “besides, being used to roughing it, I am always glad to do so in a good cause. My palace, as you see, is not a bad one, though small. It is pretty hot too, as you seem to feel; and they tell me there will be some interesting variety in my experiences when the rainy season sets in! I wouldn’t mind it so much if I could only be left to sleep in peace at nights. I stay here, you see, night and day, and what wi’ the Arabs prowling around, whispering and trying to get in, and the wild dogs makin’ the neighbourhood a place o’ public meeting—barking, howling, and quarrelling over their sorrows like human bein’s, they don’t give me much rest.”
“I have read of these dogs before,” said Miles. “Are they really as wild and dangerous as they get credit for?”
“If you’d seen the fight I had wi’ them the other night you’d have no doubt on that point. Why, a gang of ’em made a regular attack on me, and if it hadn’t been that I was pretty active with my sword-stick, they’d have torn me in bits. Let me advise you never to go out after nightfall without one. Is that one in your hand?”
“No, it is merely a cane.”
“Well, exchange with me. There’s no saying when you may want it.”
Tufnell took a light sword-stick which lay on the table and handed it to Miles, who accepted it laughingly, and without the slightest belief that he should ever have occasion to use it.
In chatting about the plans of the building and the prospects of success, our hero became at last so deeply interested—partly, no doubt, because of his friend’s enthusiasm—that he forgot the flight of time, and the evening was advancing before he rose to leave.
“Now, Tufnell,” he said suddenly, “I must be off, I have another call of importance to make.”