There is better work for Major Dunwoodie than to be exposing the life of
his friend."
While Harper was speaking, he carefully rolled up the map he had been
studying, and placed it, together with sundry papers that were also
open, into his pocket. He was still occupied in this manner, when the
voice of the peddler, talking in unusually loud tones, was heard
directly over their heads.
"Stand farther this way, Captain Wharton, and you can see the tents in
the moonshine. But let them mount and ride; I have a nest here, that
will hold us both, and we will go in at our leisure."
"And where is this nest? I confess that I have eaten but little the last
two days, and I crave some of the cheer you mention."
"Hem!" said the peddler, exerting his voice still more. "Hem--this fog
has given me a cold; but move slow--and be careful not to slip, or you
may land on the bayonet of the sentinel on the flats; 'tis a steep hill
to rise, but one can go down it with ease."
Harper pressed his finger on his lip, to remind Frances of her promise,
and, taking his pistols and hat, so that no vestige of his visit
remained, he retired deliberately to a far corner of the hut, where,
lifting several articles of dress, he entered a recess in the rock, and,
letting them fall again, was hid from view.
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