"Colonel Sullivan!"
The Colonel did not heed his remonstrance. "And follow us!" he continued. "Are you hearing, boy? Go then."
"Colonel Sullivan," Asgill repeated, his face both darker and paler—for there could be no doubt about the other's meaning—"I'm thinking this is a strange liberty you're taking. And I beg to say I don't understand the meaning of it."
"You wish to know the meaning of it?"
"I do."
"It means, sir," Colonel John replied, "that the sooner you start on your return journey the better!"
Asgill stared. "The better you will be pleased, you mean!" he said. And he laughed harshly.
"The better it will be for you, I mean," Colonel John answered.
Asgill flushed darkly, but he commanded himself—having those injunctions to prudence fresh in his mind. "This is an odd tone," he said. "And I must ask you to explain yourself further, or I can tell you that what you have said will go for little. I am here upon the invitation of my friend, The McMurrough——"
"This is not his house."