"How now, captain? What is ill with you?"
"My weapons, sir—my rapier, my dagger—angled, filched, stolen in my sleep! God's death, is this the kind of a house you keep here?—Ah, you have them, I see."
But Jerningham pleasantly raised his hand, so that the captain in mere courtesy stopped in the midst of a stride forward, and waited for the other's words.
"A slight piece of mirth, captain, and a lesson for you, too. Coming hither upon a sudden business, and learning you were so sound a sleeper, I saw my chance of disarming you, and showing you what danger a man may be in asleep."
"Why, sooth, I am not wont to sleep so sound," said Ravenshaw, a little shamefacedly; "but, being come to this quiet and lone place, I allowed myself to slide, as one might say, and—so 'twas. But to take my weapons from me awake, that were a different business, sir, I think I may say."
"All the world knows that, captain."
"By your leave, sir, I'll have them back again, I feel awkward without 'em."
"A mere moment, I pray you, captain," said Jerningham, with a smile of harmless raillery. "I would have you hear first the business I have come hither so late to send you upon. As it is so sudden a matter, and hath some discomfort in it, you might take it in choler; and then 'twere best you had no steel to your hand."
Ravenshaw thought that his master's wit was of a very childish quality; but said, merely, as he summoned patience:
"What is the business?"