"We must
have come more than that distance since we halted in the night. Now,
my good woman, I have a party of twenty men here, and we have lost our
way in the hills, and must stop here for the night. How many houses
are there in the village?"
"There are ten or twelve, sir."
"That is all right, then. We must quarter two men on each. I will pay
every one for the trouble it will give, and for something to eat,
which we want badly enough, for we have come at least twenty-five or
twenty-six miles, and probably ten more than that, and have had
nothing but a bit of bread since we started."
"It's heartily welcome you will be, sir," the woman said, "and we will
all do the best we can for you."
The men were now ordered to fall out. The sergeant proceeded with them
through the village, quartering two men on each house, while Ralph
went round to see what provisions were obtainable. Potatoes and black
bread were to be had everywhere, and he also was able to buy a
good-sized pig, which, in a very few minutes, was killed and cut up.
"We have reason to consider ourselves lucky indeed," Ralph said, as he
sat down with the excise officer half an hour later to a meal of
boiled potatoes and pork chops roasted over a peat fire. "It's
half-past four now, and will be pitch dark in another half-hour. If we
had not struck upon that stream we should have had another night out
among the hills.
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