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The innkeeper shouted to Leon and Spidel, and the tinkler was excitedly questioned. Dobson laughed and slapped his thigh. He gave orders to the others, and himself joined the tinkler and hurried off in the direction of the Garplefoot. Something was happening there, something of ill omen, for the man's face and manner had been triumphant. Were the boats landing?
He also fixed up the skirt so that the fringe of it could be seen, and, when Leon appeared below, he was in the shadow talking rapid French in a very fair imitation of the tones of Cousin Eugenie. The ruse had its effect, for Leon promptly went off to tell Spidel, and when Dobson appeared he too was given the news.
At the moment Dobson was lunching off a hunk of bread and cheese directly between the Tower and the House, just short of the crest of the ridge on the other side of which lay the stables and the shrubberies; Leon was on the north side opposite the Tower door, and Spidel was at the south end near the edge of the Garple glen.
There was a tumbling of men in the doorway, a muttering of strange tongues, and the vision of the innkeeper shouting to Leon and Spidel. For a second he was seen in the faint reflection that the light in the hall cast as far as the verandah, a wild figure urging the retreat with a pistol clapped to the head of those who were too confused by the hurricane of events to grasp the situation.
If you refuse, my men are behind you and around you, and you go with me to be punished at my leisure." "I warn you," cried Sir Archie. "We are armed, and will shoot down any one who dares to lay a hand on us." "You fool," came the answer. "I can send you all to eternity before you touch a trigger." Leon was by his side now Leon and Spidel, imploring him to do something which he angrily refused.
He told of the enemy's plans so far as he knew them. "Looked at from a business point of view," he said, "the situation's like this. There's Heritage in the Tower, with Dobson, Leon, and Spidel sitting round him. Somewhere about the place there's the Princess and Sir Archibald and three men with guns from the Mains. Dougal and his five laddies are running loose in the policies.
Indeed he was almost too successful, for he created panic where he went, and one or two fired blindly at the quarter where he had last been heard. These shots were followed by frenzied prohibitions from Spidel and were not repeated. Presently he felt that aimless surge of men that is the prelude to flight, and heard Dobson's great voice roaring in the hall.
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