I'm as ravenous as a hungry
wolf. Which of you was in the larder--come?'

'I was, brother,' said Dennis, pulling off his hat, and fumbling in
the crown. 'There's a matter of cold venison pasty somewhere or another
here, if that'll do.'

'Do!' cried Hugh, seating himself on the pathway. 'Bring it out! Quick!
Show a light here, and gather round! Let me sup in state, my lads! Ha ha
ha!'

Entering into his boisterous humour, for they all had drunk deeply, and
were as wild as he, they crowded about him, while two of their number
who had torches, held them up, one on either side of him, that his
banquet might not be despatched in the dark. Mr Dennis, having by this
time succeeded in extricating from his hat a great mass of pasty, which
had been wedged in so tightly that it was not easily got out, put it
before him; and Hugh, having borrowed a notched and jagged knife from
one of the company, fell to work upon it vigorously.

'I should recommend you to swallow a little fire every day, about an
hour afore dinner, brother,' said Dennis, after a pause. 'It seems to
agree with you, and to stimulate your appetite.'

Hugh looked at him, and at the blackened faces by which he was
surrounded, and, stopping for a moment to flourish his knife above his
head, answered with a roar of laughter.

'Keep order, there, will you?' said Simon Tappertit.

'Why, isn't a man allowed to regale himself, noble captain,' retorted
his lieutenant, parting the men who stood between them, with his knife,
that he might see him,--'to regale himself a little bit after such work
as mine? What a hard captain! What a strict captain! What a tyrannical
captain! Ha ha ha!'

'I wish one of you fellers would hold a bottle to his mouth to keep him
quiet,' said Simon, 'unless you want the military to be down upon us.'

'And what if they are down upon us!' retorted Hugh. 'Who cares? Who's
afraid? Let 'em come, I say, let 'em come. The more, the merrier. Give
me bold Barnaby at my side, and we two will settle the military, without
troubling any of you. Barnaby's the man for the military. Barnaby's
health!'

But as the majority of those present were by no means anxious for a
second engagement that night, being already weary and exhausted, they
sided with Mr Tappertit, and pressed him to make haste with his supper,
for they had already delayed too long. Knowing, even in the height of
his frenzy, that they incurred great danger by lingering so near the
scene o