"
He expected no answer, and I gave him none. There are times
when an Indian is the best company in the world.
Just before we reached the market place we had to pass the mouth
of a narrow lane leading down to the river. The night was very
dark, though the stars still shone through rifts in the ever moving
clouds. The Indian and I walked rapidly on, - my footfalls
sounding clear and sharp on the frosty ground, he as noiseless as a
shadow. We had reached the further side of the lane, when he put
forth an arm and plucked from the blackness a small black figure.
In the middle of the square was kept burning a great brazier filled
with pitched wood. It was the duty of the watch to keep it flaming
from darkness to dawn. We found it freshly heaped with pine, and
its red glare lit a goodly circle. The Indian, pinioning the wrists of
his captive with his own hand of steel, dragged him with us into
this circle of light.
"Looking for simples once more, learned doctor?" I demanded.
He mowed and jabbered, twisting this way and that in the grasp of
the Indian.
"Loose him," I said to the latter, "but let him not come too near
you. Why, worthy doctor, in so wild and threatening a night, when
fire is burning and wine flowing at the guest house, do you choose
to crouch here in the cold and darkness?"
He looked at me with his filmy eyes, and that faint smile that had
more of menace in it than a panther's snarl.
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