Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/118

 spoke he went out once more by the other door, and returned briskly next moment.

"Ah well?" asked Young.

"Right as rain! We might as well turn in."

"I sha'n't. One never knows. Besides, there's the police to fetch some time, and a horse ready saddled in the stable. If I had my way I'd fetch 'em now."

"My dear, good fellow, where's the point?" asked the Englishman, screwing round on the music-stool with his eye-glass flaming in the lamp-light. "That chap's all right! We've tied him too tight to move. In any case, when there's the least occasion for anybody to go, Mr. Young, you may rely upon due notice to that effect from me."

So saying, he turned abruptly to the piano; and Irralie, turning also, stole in deeper among the trees, with the first notes of Chopin's funeral march in her ears, and clear in her brain the image of a very formidable opponent indeed. He was brisk,