It waited only while three or four passengers
alighted, and then drove on and passed them in its journey south.
Five hours hence it would pass the northward coach from Kendal.
When Ralph and Sim dismounted at the Fox and Hounds, at Askham, the
landlord came hastily to the door. He was a brawny dalesman, of
perhaps thirty. He was approaching the travellers with the customary
salutations of a host, when, checking himself, and coming to Ralph, he
said in a low tone, "I ask pardon, sir, but is your name
Ray?--Captain--hush!" he whispered; and then, becoming suddenly mute,
without waiting for a reply to his questions, he handed the horses to
a man who came up at the moment, and beckoned Ralph and Sim to follow
him, not through the front of the house, but towards the yard that led
to the back.
"Don't you know me?" he said as soon as he had conveyed them, as if by
stealth, into a little room detached from the rest of the house.
"Surely it's Brown? And how are you, my lad?"
"Gayly; and you seem gayly yourself, and not much altered since the
great days at Dunbar--only a bit lustier, mayhap, and with something
more of beard.
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