"Oh! it's all very well; but if you don't take to your heels, you'll have all the old women in the village a whacking on you, that's all I have to say about it. You'd better port your helm and about ship, or you'll be keel-hauled."
"D—n your—"
"What's the matter?" inquired Marchdale, as he arrived.
"What's the cause of all the noise we have heard?" said Sir Francis; "has some village festival spontaneously burst forth among the rustics of this place?"
"I cannot tell the cause of it," said Henry Bannerworth; "but they seem to me to be coming towards this place."
"Indeed!"
"I think so too," said Marchdale.
"With what object?" inquired Sir Francis Varney.
"No peaceable one," observed Henry; "for, as far I can observe, they struck across the country, as though they would enclose something, or intercept somebody."
"Indeed! but why come here?"