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The reader will, undoubtedly, be at a loss to comprehend why he was thus seized upon, contrary to the laws of hospitality; it is therefore our business to inform him, that he had, some time before this, in the shape of a poor lame cripple, frightened either the justice or his horse on Hilton bridge; but which of the two it was, cannot be affirmed with any certainty.
Our charmingly quaint picture of Richard, his sister and brother, in wondrous French costumes, is from an oil painting which has not before been copied. Richard was first taught by a lame Irishman named Clough, who kept a school at Tours; and by and by, chiefly for the children's sake, Colonel Burton gave up Beausejour and took a house in the Rue De L'Archeveche, the best street in the town.
In reply they gave me a detailed and melancholy history of their experiences. Riley's Narrative of Shipwreck, and subsequent hardships on the coast of Africa, was nothing to it. Of the twenty-five horses with which they left Reykjavik only thirteen were sound of wind, and of these more than half were afflicted with raw backs. The pack-animals, eighteen in number, were every one lame.
Evidently a real and fervent love of music had not been omitted from Bill's make-up. Then Bill stirred in his sleep. She lay still, watching. She saw his eyes open. And his first glance was toward her. He flashed her a smile, and she tried pitifully to answer it. "How are you?" he asked. "Awfully lame and sore and tired. Maybe I'll be better soon. And you ?" "A little stiff, not much.
"Oh, if it were but a lame man, instead of a dog!" fervently said the groom, who was in the secret of our quest. A horrid oath rang out on the smoky morning air. Michael, his wicked eyes bulging fiercely, his thick neck swollen with rage, was cursing like the army in Flanders, as related by dear old Uncle Toby. "Lame man! why, oddsbodkins, that hostler was lame!
Before we moved a mile my horse became so lame, I was obliged to dismount, and proceed on foot. Never have I experienced a hotter sun, or more sultry air. It was as though we were within a furnace; men struggled for breath, not a few dropped exhausted, the others straggling grimly forward, their faces streaked with dust and perspiration, their saturated clothing clinging to their bodies.
"No, I must go back. I'll be lame all right, but it won't be the first time. I'm lame and sore now. I've polished that saddle so you could skate on it already," laughed Ned. Mr. Simms laughed. "I can understand that quite easily. I've been in the saddle a good share of my life, too. There comes the foreman now."
It happened that he passed the home of Colonel Josiah Whympers, the retired and lame traveler, in whose care Andy had been left by the will which his father had made before starting on what had proven his last air voyage. "Guess Andy's gone to bed," he mused, as he saw the house wrapped in darkness, for it was now after half past nine.
Consequently we mustered the halt and the lame, and manned two boats all we could do leaving the almost useless cripples to handle the ship. Not to displace the rightful harpooner, I took an oar in one of them, headed by the captain. At first my hopes were high that we should not succeed in reaching the victim before dark, but I was grievously disappointed in this.
Punch's little hoof-tracks, cutting through a sandy bit in the northward ravine, had drawn them all that way, but nothing further had been found. His horse, too, said the orderly, was lame and failing, so he had been bidden to wait by the water and watch for couriers either from the front or out from the post. Byrne was one of those never-give-up men, and they all knew him.
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