"Yow cudna 'a come any faster if yer blasted
yed 'ad been blown to bits instead of my lantern."
Some of the men laughed at this, whereon the sergeant blasphemed enough
to make a devil from hell shiver. He cowed the dragoons, but the innkeeper
only growled, "A three-bob lantern blown to bits! Fork out three bob!"
"I'll have him if I have to blow the house to bits!" vociferated the
sergeant.
"Fork out three bob!" repeated the host.
Not a word had passed between us on the stair-head, and now, at the sound
of preparations for a fresh assault, the Colonel took each of us by the
arm and led us into his room.
"The stair-head cannot be held against fire from the opposite landing,"
he whispered.
When inside, he locked the door, and I helped him pile the bed on end
behind it, heaping all the other furniture against the bed-frame to hold
the mattress and bedding up against the door. Margaret, at a brief word of
command, had meanwhile kept watch through the window.
"That's a fair defence," he said contentedly. "What are these devils?"
"Brocton's dragoons," said I. "I've settled two of them, one on the roof
and one in the passage.
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