“How long did this detain you?”
“Oh, he kept us waiting three or four hours,” interposed Miss Alice; “and when he came out, he couldn’t have been more unsteady if he had been a-drinking.”
“Yes, indeed, sir,” added Maria, “his manners has been wery extraordinary ever since; he has been either singing songs or sleeping the whole way here.”
“The interview was a very strange one. Did any one else see the ten or twelve men?” inquired the chief.
“I seed one of them, sir,” replied Maria—“a tall, handsome gentleman, in a green frock coat. He went towards a horse that was tied near a stack of fuel, just at the moment Copus came out.”
“Indeed? Did you see him, Copus?”
“Oh yes. I saw a figure something as she describes it. He is the surest sign, the wild woman said, of something awful; they calls him Kickan-drubb.”
“How strange!” repeated the chieftain, for the hundredth time—“a regular conspiracy, and nobody here to defend us. The old tiger down-stairs, Angus Mohr, would be the first to kill us if he could, and what is to become of us, Heaven only knows.”
“Better let the horses stay at the door, sir; the carriage may be useful,” suggested Copus.