His hand, which shook so
at starting that it was odds whether he got his glass to his mouth or his
ear, was now steadied, but his glazed eye and green haggard countenance
showed at what a fearful sacrifice the temporary steadiness had been
obtained. At last his jaw dropped on his chest, his left arm hung
listlessly over the back of the chair, and he fell asleep. Captain Quod,
too, was overcome, and threw himself full-length on the sofa. Captain
Seedeybuck began to talk thick.
Just as they were all about brought to a standstill, the trampling of
horses, the rumbling of wheels, and the shrill twang, twang, twang of the
now almost forgotten mail horn, roused them from their reveries. It was
Sir Harry's drag scouring the country in search of our party. It had been
to all the public-houses and beer-shops within a radius of some miles of
Nonsuch House, and was now taking a speculative blow through the centre of
the circle.
It was a clear frosty night, and the horses' hoofs rang, and the wheels
rolled soundly over the hard road, cracking the thin ice, yet hardly
sufficiently frozen to prevent a slight upshot from the wheels.
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