“Well, Carlo, we have our work cut out for us to-night, that is evident. I think it will be well to represent that we are tired with our journey, and ask leave to go to bed as soon as possible. Then we can perfect our plans. By the bye, have you looked in at the horses at all?”
“No, sir,” responded Paschics in surprise.
“Then we will go and do it now,” and they crossed the farmyard and entered the stable. Here Cyril found a state of things which threw him into a towering passion, and made him despatch Paschics to fetch their driver, who was enjoying a pleasant evening with the two or three men employed on the farm.
“What do you mean by leaving the horses like this?” he stormed, when the man appeared, surly and reluctant. “You have not even rubbed them down, and the mud is literally caked on their legs. The black can’t reach the manger, and there is something seriously wrong with the grey’s off fore-foot. Do you imagine that I would drive about behind cattle like that? Perhaps you counted on having time to clean them in the morning, but I can assure you that we shall start too early for that. By eight o’clock we must be upon the road, and it will be the worse for you if the horses are not fit to be seen.”
Cowed by the rebukes translated to him by Paschics, the driver attempted various excuses. The horses were his own, they were not accustomed to be groomed, no travellers had ever said anything of the kind before, and so on; but Cyril cut him short, and reiterating his last warning, turned on his heel and went back to the house with Paschics.
“How is that?” he asked him. “I fancy our friend will have a pretty clear idea as to our intention of starting in good time in the morning, will he not?”
“No doubt, sir; but was it worth while to awaken the man’s enmity merely for that? I saw him scowl at you as you turned away.”
“You are right; it would not have been worth while merely for that. But while you were fetching him from the house, I took the opportunity of examining the corner of the wall by the stable, which is the very corner Miss Olga mentioned to us. Thanks to the crooked tree and the roughness of the stones, we shall be able to get the ladies over with no great difficulty, if one of us is at the top to receive them and the other at the foot to help them up.”
“I must say I wish we were safe outside, sir.”
“Why not say at once safe at Prince Mirkovics’s castle or in Bellaviste itself? But here is our venerable friend the farmer. It would be as well to ask whether he has any objection to our retiring to rest now.”