him. “So-ho, Martin, here we are, all safe and snug,” cried the big man from the hearth. “Find p. 68us the tipple in that cupboard of yours, Mother Mag, and then I’ll be packing.” p. 68 “You’ll be staying here, my friend Roger,” said Martin, coolly, dropping into a chair by the table. “You’re to wait until he comes.” “I tell you I’ll have my drink and be off,” Roger growled, scowling at him. “Who the devil are you to be givin’ me orders? I’ve an affair twenty miles off as ever was by break o’ day.” “Yet you’ll be staying,” the young man insisted quietly. “I’m giving you his orders, not mine. What’s it to me whether you go or stay?” “I’m damned, if I’ll wait!” Roger asserted. “You’re damned, if you go,” sneered Martin, his eyes flashing up suddenly like two wicked green gems. “Get him the drink, Mother Mag, and he’ll be staying—not risking his neck by going.” I saw the red blood rush to Roger’s face. I heard him growl and mutter to himself; he straddled still across the hearth. Laughing hoarsely then he cried out, “Ay, the drink, Mother Mag—the drink,” and turning his back on Martin, kicked savagely at the fire. While I sat blinking at them, and wondering whether it should be my Uncle Charles expected at the house, and what bearing his arrival should p. 69have upon my fortunes, the hag, taking a key from the jingling ring at her side, unlocked the press; and out of its recess drew a bloated bottle of violet-coloured glass; hugging this to her, she set out four thick, blue goblets, and poured into them some dark spirit or cordial, pausing ere she filled the fourth to point her skinny fingers at me, and then peer at Martin, as if to gather from him whether I was to drink with them. p. 69 He replied curtly, “Ay, pour him a dram,—half a glass—Mother Mag; he looks about to croak,” and sneered at me. Roger, swinging round from the fire, took up his glass and tossed off the contents; snatching the bottle then from Mother Mag he filled up a glass which he handed to me, growling, “Drink it down, lad! it’ll put heart into you.” The woman, with a shrill cry, leaped like a cat upon him, seeking to snatch the bottle from him; holding it above her reach and fending her off from me, he refilled and drained his glass, and set the bottle down once more. She clutched it to her, set in the
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