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The ladder was left alone. Dougal's hand brought Dickson summarily to the floor, where he was fairly well concealed by a mess of matting. Unfortunately his head was in the vicinity of some upturned pot-plants, so that a cactus ticked his brow and a spike of aloe supported painfully the back of his neck.
No longer drifting with the outgoing tide, George Martin had now boldly taken to the oars. The River Police boat close in his wake, he headed for the blunt promontory of the Isle of Dogs. The grim pursuit went on until: "I bet I know where he's for," said Coombes. "So do I," declared Inspector White; "Dougal's!" Their anticipations were realized.
"According to calculations, if we have not got off the trail," Chillingwood went on, with a sly look at his superior, "we should reach Dougal's roadside hostelry in the Pass by eight o'clock well before dark. We ought to escape the storm." "You mean we shall," said Grey pointedly. "If " "Bunkum!" The two men relapsed into silence. They were very good friends these two.
As a matter of course, he promised all that was desired of him, and sent the old shepherd away happy; but long after Dougal's departure he sat thoughtful and grave. "Can such things be, Helen, and I never heard of them? Are some of my people they are my people, since the land belongs to me as terribly poor as that man?" "Ay, very many, though papa looks after them as much as he can.
If they come in from the water, they can go out by the water, and there'll never be more heard tell of the ladies or of you or me." Dougal's face was once again sunk in gloom. "What's your plan, then?" "We must get the ladies away from here away inland, far from the sea. The rest of us must stand a siege in the old Tower, so that the enemy will think we're all there.
He saw the rush of smoke which, in the rising storm, was ruthlessly swept from the mouth of a piece of upright stove-pipe, which in the now grey surroundings could just be distinguished. "But I thought there was a broad, open trail at Dougal's," he said, at last, after gazing for some moments at the tiny smoke-stack. "Maybe the road opens out here," answered Grey weakly. But it didn't.
Many of the patrons carried light baggage, since a P and O boat, an oriental, and the S. S. Mahratta, were sailing that night or in the early morning, and Dougal's was the favorite house of call for a doch-an-dorrich for sailormen, particularly for sailormen of color. Upon the police group became focussed the glances of light eyes and dark eyes, round eyes, almond-shaped eyes, and oblique eyes.
The officer, whose name I understood was Thornton, paying no attention to the Bailie's threats or expostulations, instituted a very close inquiry into Dougal's life and conversation, and compelled him to admit, though with apparent reluctance, the successive facts, that he knew Rob Roy MacGregor that he had seen him within these twelve months within these six months within this month within this week; in fine, that he had parted from him only an hour ago.
"Me like m'lasses," piped Jamie, who had managed to get the pup's tail over his shoulder, and was hanging on to it with both hands. Vada shrieked as the pup began to yelp. "Oh, look at Jamie," she cried. "He's pulling Dougal's tail right out. You're a naughty, naughty boy." "Not naughty," protested Jamie, pulling harder.
There was to be no pleasant April twilight, for the stormy sky had already made dusk, and in a very little the dark would fall. So sombre was the evening that Dickson did not notice a figure in the shadow of the roadside pines till it whistled shrilly on its fingers. He cried on Alexis to stop, and, this being accomplished with some suddenness, fell off at Dougal's feet.
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