And then I heard a sort of small hubbub of voices, such
as foreigners make when they are ordered to keep quiet, and have to
carry on a struggle with their noisy nature.
"This was enough to settle my decision not to budge an inch, until
I knew what they were up to. I could not see round the corner,
mind--though ladies seem capable of doing that, Maria--and so these
fellows, who seemed to be in two lots, some at the top and some at the
bottom of the plankway, were entirely out of my sight as yet, though I
had a good view of their sliding-plane. But presently the ropes began to
strain and creak, drawn taut--as our fishermen express it--either
from the upper or the lower end, and I saw three barrels come sliding
down--sliding, not rolling (you must understand), and not as a brewer
delivers beer into a cellar. These passed by me; and after a little
while there came again that strange sepulchral sound, which had made me
feel so uneasy.
"Maria, you know that I can hold my own against almost anybody in
the world but you; and although this place is far outside my parish
boundaries, I felt that as the Uncle of the present owner--so far at
least as the lawyers have not snapped him up--and the brother-in-law
of the previous proprietor, I possessed an undeniable legal right--quo
warranto, or whatever it is called--to look into all proceedings on
these premises. Next to Holy Scripture, Horace is my guide and guardian;
and I called to mind a well-known passage, which may roughly be rendered
thus: 'If the crushed world tumble on him, the ruins shall strike him
undismayed.
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