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"Confound it!" said Byfield, "the land can't be uninhabited!" It was, for aught we could see. Not a light showed anywhere; and to make things worse the moon had abandoned us. For one good hour we swept through chaos to the tuneless lamentations of Sheepshanks, who declared that his collar-bone was broken. Then Dalmahoy flung a hand upwards.
"Byfield " I began. Dalmahoy pointed. The aëronaut lay at my feet, collapsed like some monstrous marionette, with legs and arms a-splay. Across his legs, with head propped against a locker, reclined Sheepshanks, and gazed upwards with an approving smile. "Awkward business," explained Dalmahoy, between gasps.
I held up my packet of notes, "Here's the money for pity's sake, man! There are bailiffs after me, in the crowd!" " the spectacle which you have honoured with your enlightened patronage I tell you I can't." He cast a glance behind him into the car "with your enlightened patronage, needs but few words of introduction or commendation." "Hear, hear!" from Dalmahoy.
He rose on his knees, his finger-tips resting on the floor, and contemplated the aëronaut over his glasses with a world of reproach. "I tak' ye to witness, Mr. Byfield!" Byfield mopped a perspiring brow. "My dear sir," he stammered, "all a mistake no fault of mine explain presently"; then, as one catching at an inspiration, "Allow me to introduce you. Mr. Dalmahoy, Mr.
Dalmahoy, being appealed to, suggested Glasgow: and thenceforward I let him alone. Byfield snored on. I pulled out my watch, which I had forgotten to wind; and found it run down. The hands stood at twenty minutes past four. Daylight, then, could not be far off. Eighteen hours say twenty: and Byfield had guessed our rate at one time to be thirty miles an hour. Five hundred miles
It was the egregious Dalmahoy. He clung and steadied himself by one of the dozen ropes binding the car to earth; and with an air of doing it all by his unaided cleverness an air so indescribably, so majestically drunken, that I could have blushed for the poor expedients which had carried me through the throng. "You'll excuse me if I don't let go. Fact is, we've been keeping it up a bit all night.
I heard Byfield expostulating, apparently in vain: for I awoke next to find that Sheepshanks had stumbled over me while illustrating, with an empty bottle, the motions of tossing the caber. "Old Hieland sports," explained Dalmahoy, wiping tears of vain laughter: "his mother's uncle was out in the 'Forty-Five. Sorry to wake you, Ducie: balow, my babe!"
At this altitude one shank was more than we had a right to expect: the plural multiplies the obligation." Keeping a tight hold on his hysteria, Dalmahoy steadied himself by a rope and bowed. "And I, sir," as Mr. Sheepshanks' thoroughly bewildered gaze travelled around and met mine "I, sir, am the Vicomte Anne de Kéroual de Saint-Yves, at your service.
Dalmahoy was seated on the floor of the car, and helping Mr. Sheepshanks to unpack a carpet bag. "This will be whisky," the little pawnbroker announced: "three bottles. My wife said, 'Surely, Elshander, ye'll find whisky where ye're gaun. 'No doubt I will, said I, 'but I'm not very confident of its quality; and it's a far step. My itinerary, Mr.
"Skye would have been better," suggested Dalmahoy, without moving an eyelid. "Skye? Dear me capital, capital! Only, you see," he urged, "she wouldn't expect me to be in Skye." A minute later he drew me aside. "Excellent company your friend is, sir: most gentlemanly manners; but at times, if I may so say, not very gleg." My hands by this time were numb with cold.
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