O Master Geoffery, we be dead men!"
Another groan here interrupted their discourse. Master Hardpiece
muttered some unintelligible prayers, putting on a face of great
solemnity. Several minutes elapsed, while the following exclamations
rapidly succeeded each other:--
"A ghost!--save us!--a very ghost! I'll not to Slaidburn again without
help. Another draught, Anthony; a stiffener to thy courage, mayhap. It's
now daylight, though," said he, looking through the casement, "and most
of us fear only what may be felt, in the day-time at any rate."
Anthony took the cup, and, apparently without being aware, drank off the
contents. He was much invigorated by the draught which seemed to invest
him with new courage; partly from the recollection that a long daylight
would intervene between the beginning and the end of his journey, and
partly because of the sudden rush of spirits to his brain. He arose, and
assuming a posture more erect, planted his cap in a becoming attitude,
whilst Geoffery was putting aside the empty vessels into a sort of
large wooden chalice, for the purpose of a more convenient removal.
Light footsteps were now heard bounding along the passage, and the door
was suddenly burst open by two rosy-cheeked children; the elder a boy of
some four or five years' growth, and his sister scarcely a twelvemonth
younger.
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