the
people fell aside for him.

At the door of the Saddle Inn he stood a moment, but voices came from
within and he passed on. Going by the Court House he came to the
Plough Tavern, and there he stopped again, paused a moment, and then
stepped in. After a time the children who had followed at his heels
separated, and the girls who had looked after him began to dance with
arms akimbo and skirts held up over their white ankles. He was
forgotten.

An hour later, four men, armed with cutlasses, and carrying ship's
irons, came hurrying from the harbor. They were blue-jackets from the
revenue cutter lying in the bay, and they were in pursuit of a seaman
who had escaped from the English brig at anchor outside. The runaway
was a giant and a foreigner, andsave the life of a Manxman."

"Then here's to his right good health," cried Asher Fairbrother, with
his mouth in a basin of milk; and in that brave liquor, with three
times three and the thud and thung of twenty hard fists on the table,
the rough toast was called round.

And in the midst of it, when Greeba, having conquered her maiden
shame, had crept back to the kitchen, and Mrs. Fairbrother, aroused
at length by the lightsome hubbub, had come down to put an end to it,
the door of the porch opened, and crazy old Chalse A'Killey stood
upon the threshold, very pale, panting for breath, and with a ghastly
light in his sunken eyes, and cried, "He's dying. Where's the young
man that fetched him ashore? He's crying out for him, and I'm to
fetch him