I beg
leave to say, that when I took the house, I took the table and chairs
with it. D--n it, what good do you suppose an empty house is to me?" "The tables and chairs!" "Yes. I took the house just as it stands. Don't try and bamboozle me out
of it. I tell you, you've nothing to move but yourselves and immediate
personal effects." "I was not aware, admiral, that that was your plan." "Well, then, now you are, listen to me. I've circumvented the enemy too
often not to know how to get up a plot. Jack and I have managed it all. To-morrow evening, after dark, and before the moon's got high enough to
throw any light, you and your brother, and Miss Flora and your mother,
will come out of the house, and Jack and I will lead you where you're to
go to. There's plenty of furniture where you're a-going, and so you will
get off free, without anybody knowing anything about it." "Well, admiral, I've said it before, and it is the unanimous opinion of
us all, that everything should be left to you. You have proved yourself
too good a friend to us for us to hesitate at all in obeying your
commands. Arrange everything, I pray you, according to your wishes and
feelings, and you will find there shall be no cavilling on our parts." "That's right; there's nothing like giving a command to some one person. There's no good done without. Now I'll manage it all. Mind you, seven
o'clock to-morrow evening everything is to be ready, and you will all be
prepared to leave the Hall." "It shall be so." "Who's that giving such a thundering ring at the gate?" "Nay, I know not. We have few visitors and no servants, so I must e'en
be my own gate porter." Henry walked to the gate, and having opened it, a servant in a handsome
livery stepped a pace or two into the garden. "Well," said Henry. "Is Mr. Henry Bannerworth within, or Admiral Bell?" "Both," cried the admiral. "I'm Admiral Bell, and this is Mr. Henry
Bannerworth. What do you want with us, you d----d gingerbread-looking
flunkey?" "Sir, my master desires his compliments--his very best compliments--and
he wants to know how you are after your flurry." "What?" "After your--a--a--flurry and excitement." "Who is your master?" said Henry. "Sir Francis Varney." "The devil!" said the admiral; "if that don't beat all the impudence I
ever came near. Our flurry! Ah! I like that fellow. Just go and tell
him--"

"No, no," said Henry, interposing, "send back no message. Say to your
master, fellow, that Mr. Henry Bannerworth feels that not only has he no
claim to Sir Francis Varney's courtesy, but that he would rather be
without it." "Oh, ha!" said the footman, adjusting his collar; "very good. This seems
a d----d, old-fashioned, outlandish place of yours. Any ale?" "Now, shiver my hulks!" said the admiral. "Hush! hush!" said Henry; "who knows but there may be a design in this? We have no ale." "Oh, ah! dem!--dry as dust, by God! What does the old commodore say? Any
message, my ancient Greek?" "No, thank you," said the admiral; "bless you, nothing. What did you
give for that waistcoat, d--n you? Ha! ha! you're a clever fellow." "Ah! the old gentleman's ill. However, I'll take back his compliments,
and that he's much obliged at Sir Francis's condescension. At the same
time, I suppose may place in my eye what I may get out of either of you,
without hindering me seeing my way back. Ha! ha! Adieu--adieu." "Bravo!" said the admiral; "that's it--go it--now for it. D--n it, it is
a _do!_"

The admiral's calmness during the latter part of the dialogue arose from
the fact that over the flunkey's shoulder, and at some little distance
off, he saw Jack Pringle taking off his jacket, and rolling up his
sleeves in that deliberate sort of way that seemed to imply a
determination of setting about some species of work that combined the
pleasant with the useful. Jack executed many nods to and winks at the livery-servant, and jerked
his thumb likewise in the direction of a pump near at hand, in a manner
that spoke as plainly as possible, that John was to be pumped upon. And now the conference was ended, and Sir Francis's messenger turned to
go; but Jack Pringle bothered him completely, for he danced round him in
such a singular manner, that, turn which way he would, there stood Jack
Pringle, in some grotesque attitude, intercepting him; and so he edged
him on, till he got him to the pump. "Jack," said the admiral. "Ay, ay, sir." "Don't pump on that fellow now." "Ay, ay, sir; give us a hand." Jack laid hold of him by the two ears, and holding him under the pump,
kicked his shins until he completely gathered himself beneath the spout. It was in vain that he shouted "Murder! help! fire! thieves!" Jack was
inexorable, and the admiral pumped. Jack turned the fellow's head about in a very scientific manner, so as
to give him a fair dose of hydropathic treatment, and in a few minutes,
never was human being more thoroughly saturated with moisture than was
Sir Francis Varney's servant. He had left off hallooing for aid, for he
found that whenever he did so, Jack held his mouth under the spout,
which was decidedly unpleasant; so, with a patience that looked like
heroic fortitude, he was compelled to wait until the admiral was tired
of pumping. "Very good," at length he said. "Now, Jack, for fear this fellow catcher
cold, be so good as to get a horsewhip, and see him off the premises
with it." "Ay, ay, sir," said Jack. "And I say, old fellow, you can take back all
our blessed compliments now, and say you've been flurried a little
yourself; and if so be as you came here as dry as dust, d----e, you go
back as wet as a mop. Won't it do to kick him out, sir?" "Very well--as you please, Jack." "Then here goes;" and Jack proceeded to kick the shivering animal from
the garden with a vehemence that soon convinced him of the necessity of
getting out of it as quickly as possible. How it was that Sir Francis Varney, after the fearful race he had had,
got home again across the fields, free from all danger, and back to his
own house, from whence he sent so cool and insolent a message, they
could not conceive. But such must certainly be the fact; somehow or another, he had escaped
all danger, and, with a calm insolence peculiar to the man, he had no
doubt adopted the present mode of signifying as much to the
Bannerworths. The insolence of his servant was, no doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement
with that individual, however he might have set about it con amore. As
for the termination of the adventure, that, of course, had not been at
all calculated upon; but, like most tools of other people's insolence or
ambition, the insolence of the underling had received both his own
punishment and his master's.