"
The hunchback's answer was to snatch his wig from between the
apprentice's tongs, clap it on his head, ram his hat on the top of
it, and flounce out at the shop door.
The streets were full of folk, but he passed through them at an
amazing speed. His natural gait on shipboard was a kind of
anapaestic dance--two short steps and a long--and though the crowd
interrupted its cadence and coerced him to a quick bobbing motion, as
of a bottle in a choppy sea, it hardly affected his pace. Here and
there he snapped out a greeting to some ship's captain or townsman of
his acquaintance, or growled testily at a row of soldiers bearing
down on him three abreast. His angry green eyes seemed to clear a
path before him, in spite of the grins which his hump and shambling
legs excited among strangers. In this way he darted along High
Street, turned up by the markets, crossed Church Street into West
Street, and passed under the great gate by which the London Road left
the town.
Beyond this gate the road ran through a tall ravelin and out upon a
breezy peninsula between the river and the open sea. And here
Captain Barker halted and, tugging off hat and wig, wiped his crown
with a silk handkerchief.
Over the reedy marsh upon his right, where a windmill waved its lazy
arms, a score of larks were singing.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25