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Beside the snake pattered a wolf, a big, gaunt monster, who was ready to seize fast in his throat when the snake had twisted about his feet and bitten him in the heel. Sometimes they were both silent, as if to approach him unperceived, but they soon betrayed themselves by hissing and panting, and sometimes the wolf's claws rung against a stone.
Then hand in hand, with their long nightgowns lifted to their knees, they pattered out into the hall and down toward the living-room, whence came the shouting and the laughter. Don Mario de Castano, who was facing the door, stopped in the midst of a ribald song to cry: "God be praised! What's this I see?"
The school children all creaked and pattered out of church after morning prayer, and any other small people in the congregation were encouraged to do likewise, the well-filled vicarage pew setting the example. But he had no intention of waiting for that. The moment the bell ceased he unaccompanied by any of the dogs grouped about him at that moment was going to investigate the Wren's End garden.
Casey pattered up and saluted. "I've bent on that noo mainsail, sir. . . . There's a nice li'l sailin' breeze, sir." Casey, hinting at a spin in the galley, somehow reminded one of a spaniel when he sees the gun-case opened. Had he been blessed with a tail, he would most certainly have wagged it. The Captain walked slowly aft and looked down into the galley lying at the quarter-boom.
Our own bed where we spread our blankets was excellent in one respect, there was no danger of tumbling out of it. At first the rain pattered gently on the leaves overhead, and we congratulated ourselves on the snugness of our situation. There was something cheerful about this free life.
The separator seldom buzzed with soothing melody as the honey, whirled from the dripping frames of combs, pattered against its resonant sides. Bees seemed less and less numerous. An air of idleness, almost dissoluteness and despair, brooded over some of the hives. The strong robbed the weak; and the weak contented themselves with gathering in listless groups, murmuring plaintively.
Twigs and leaves pattered down, but I was safe behind the stump of a fallen tree. Presently the steel thing I had seen glinting struck the dead and sodden wood of the tree-trunk, and snapped with a sharp tang like a fiddle-string a hayfork it may have been, or one of the long thin swords such as are hung up in the hall.
At first the newness of everything and the unaccustomed smells and getting to know the caretaker, who was a nice old man, prevented my missing the man, but as the day went on and I began to realize that he had gone and would never come back, I got very depressed. I pattered all over the house, whining.
After a few moments, their curiosity satisfied, they pattered on their ghostly way again. This, he afterward learned, was the daily morning inspection of newcomers. Presently the whistle blew again and a bell sounded through the corridors. A rush of answering feet swept past; a great silence fell.
The rain pattered sharply on the pavements and beat a tattoo on leaden gutters and slate roofs. Every window was shuttered and no light gleamed through. On such a night I went out with Beach Thomas, as often before, wet or fine, after hard writing. "A foul night," said Thomas, setting off in his quick, jerky step. "I like to feel the rain on my face." We turned down as usual to the river.
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