"
"Not I! What, leave the island, now we've got here? No, Watkins!"
"Very good, my lord," said Watkins, impassively.
A sudden call came from Hogvardt, and I joined him at the window.
The scene outside was indeed remarkable. In the narrow, paved street,
gloomy now in the failing light; there must have been fifty or sixty
men standing in a circle, surrounded by an outer fringe of women
and children; and in the centre stood our landlord, his burly figure
swaying to and fro, as he poured out a low-voiced but vehement
harangue. Sometimes he pointed toward us, oftener along the ascending
road that led to the interior. I could not hear a word he said, but
presently all his auditors raised their hands toward heaven. I saw
that the hands held, some guns, some clubs, some knives; and all the
men cried with furious energy: "_Nai, nai!_" ("Yes, yes!") And then
the whole body--and the greater part of the grown men on the island
must have been present--started off, in compact array, up the road,
the innkeeper at their head. By his side walked another man, whom I
had not noticed before, and who wore an ordinary suit of tweeds, but
carried himself with an assumption of much dignity. His face I did not
see.
"Well, what's the meaning of that?" I exclaimed, looking down on the
street, empty now, save for groups of white-clothed women, who talked
eagerly to one another, gesticulating, and pointing now toward our
inn, now toward where the men had gone.
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