Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/141

 THE CAPTAIN'S NIGHTMARE

RESENTLY the captain yawned and Doctor Syn rose and summoned Mrs. Waggetts. The captain yawned again and rubbed his eyes. Was he awake or dreaming? The last thing he remembered was drinking the hot rum punch and listening to a long story that he thought the Doctor would never finish. What a soothing effect that punch seemed to have on his faculties, for after that he was rather vague. He dreamt he was lifted up sleeping, lifted up by two men who had followed Mrs. Waggetts from the bar when Doctor Syn had called her. Was one of those men that insolent Sexton Mipps? He vaguely thought it was, though he wouldn't be sure. No, he wouldn't be sure of anything! He thought he had been carried up to bed, but that was too silly, for who would carry him up to bed? Was it Doctor Syn who had said to Mipps on the stairs that he wasn't going riding to-night for a thousand guineas, and that they must do without him for once? Then Mipps answered:

"That yellow beast ain't a-lookin' out for Clegg's