Meanwhile, the Captain was questing
about the hall, sounding the wainscoting with the butt of a pistol.
Mr. Blood saw no profit to himself in lingering.
"By your leave, it's a very good day I'll be wishing you," said he.
"By my leave, you'll remain awhile," the Captain ordered him.
Mr. Blood shrugged, and sat down. "You're tiresome," he said.
"I wonder your colonel hasn't discovered it yet."
But the Captain did not heed him. He was stooping to pick up a
soiled and dusty hat in which there was pinned a little bunch of
oak leaves. It had been lying near the clothes-press in which the
unfortunate Pitt had taken refuge. The Captain smiled malevolently.
His eyes raked the room, resting first sardonically on the yeoman,
then on the two women in the background, and finally on Mr. Blood,
who sat with one leg thrown over the other in an attitude of
indifference that was far from reflecting his mind.
Then the Captain stepped to the press, and pulled open one of the
wings of its massive oaken door. He took the huddled inmate by
the collar of his doublet, and lugged him out into the open.
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