Page:Marriott Watson--Galloping Dick.djvu/75

 weapon dropped, as indeed did mine also. He stared at the door fearfully, and next at me. Nor was I myself very comfortable, for, as you are aware, I was then in particular demand at half-a-dozen Assizes.

“What is this?” he asked, speaking very low.

“Why,” says I, with a sort of laugh, “it seems someone has come with a billet-doux for one of us.”

He took a sudden rush at the window, but on that instant the door was flung open and a packet of soldiers broke into the room. My companion turned, sword in hand, and so again did I, not knowing what colour affairs were taking. But of me they took no heed, for it seems that they had full notice of their man, and had indeed been on his heels a matter of two days. And so, while we two stood in great disconcert and irresolution, a young man, somewhere near my own height, and of a very lively cast of face, stepped out of the troop, sword in hand, and confronted the man from Cornwall.