There he must lie for the moment. This sad work done, we came
back, and--so swift are life's changes--we killed a goat for dinner,
and watched Watkins dress it. Thus the afternoon wore away, and when
evening came we ate our goat flesh, and Hogvardt milked our cows, and
we sat down to consider the position of the garrison.
But the evening was hot, and we adjourned out of doors, grouping
ourselves on the broad marble pavement in front of the door.
Hogvardt had just begun to expound a very elaborate scheme of escape,
depending, so far as I could make out, on our reaching the other side
of the island, and finding there a boat, which we had no reason to
suppose would be there, when Denny raised his hand, saying, "Hark!"
From the direction of the village and the harbor came the sound of a
horn, blown long and shrill, and echoed back in strange, protracted
shrieks and groans from the hillside behind us; and following on the
blast, we heard, low in the distance and indistinct, yet rising and
falling, and rising again in savage defiance and exultation, the death
chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard had made on the death of
Stefan Stefanopoulos two hundred years ago. For a few minutes we sat
listening, and I do not think that any of us were very comfortable.
Then I rose to my feet, and I said:
"Hogvardt, old fellow, I fancy that scheme of yours must wait a
little.
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