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I am in command, and my order to all is that we makefor the inn.
Tellyou what,
Ill post a man ahead to book you a seat.
Purdeys speech had lost the burrof the
hills, and had become sharp and precise.
Otherwise Mrs Cranmer would not have
been so urgent.
And now, he buttoned his coat and smoothed his beaver, now,
byGod, for food. Him I follow instantly, and please God I shallsoon call him to
account. I am as determined as you, sir, and my power lies in my obscurity.
Thatis why I claim that the chief task falls to me.
The worst villains have
gone out of Yonderdale,including the inn-keeper.
The last word touched Bob on
the raw, and his jaw set. Boroughbridgewas a matter of six miles farther. It
would be a breach of the unwrittenlaws of the game. I am known to every
man-jack in the shire,and can set a hundred scouts to work. The professor and
Mr Kinloch maunna gang theirlane. Man, Eben, thats an inspiration, Nanty cried.
Let us be going, for I am deucedly peckish!
A change from the East Neuk, he
observed to Bob over hisshoulder.
No just as weel, maybe, as I ken the Fife
coast and the Buchannesses.
Purdey marched up to Nanty, looked him over, and
apparently did notlike what he saw. It is the chief, for I alone have heard
from MrsCranmers lips the true meaning of the journey. Therell be a lot of
blood lost inMill meadow come Thursday. Were afighting party and therefore
privileged folk in Old England. The latter nodded his head towards Nanty. Just
listen to the town-clerk, said Bob, who had attached himselfspecially to Mr
Dott.
You have certainly my permission, if you canget that of our chief
mariner.
I am known to every man-jack in the shire,and can set a hundred scouts
to work. Besides, Ill hae able-bodied passengers to gie me a handif I need it.
Jock took charge, since Nanty still blinked puzzled eyes.
You have heard that I
am a professor of logic in Scotland. The landlord was plainly shaken, but not
so Purdey.
Ive been there on lawfu errands and on some not so lawfu. Ive been
there on lawfu errands and on some not so lawfu.
Long before Thursday we must
be up and off on ourproper job.
Three days back he had seen the same chaise
andthe same horse in his own yard in Yonderdale.
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