before he had penetrated a yard into the fringe of tanglewood. He became at once the sport and target of a myriad flies. The creatures buzzed aggressively in the sudden stillness of the natural catacomb; and yet above their hum the tree-tops made Æolian music from the first moment that he stood beneath them, while last year's leaves, dry enough there even in that wet summer, rustled at every jingling step he took.
And now his steps followed the wavering line of least resistance, and so turned and twisted continually; but he would not have taken very many in this haphazard, tentative fashion, and was beginning in fact to bend them back towards the ride, when the bulbous nose of Mulberry appeared under his very own.
It was making music worthy of its painful size, as he lay like a log on the broad of his back, in a small open space. His battered hat lay beside him, along with a stout green cudgel newly cut. Jan had half a mind to remove this ugly weapon as a first preliminary; but it was not the half which had learnt to give points rather than receive them, and the impulse was no sooner felt than it was scorned. Yet the drunkard was a man of no light build. Neither did he lie like one just then particularly drunk, or even very sound asleep. The flies were not allowed to batten on his bloated visage; every now and then the snoring stopped as he shook them off; and presently a pair of bloodshot eyes rested on Jan's person.
"So you've come, have you?" grunted Mulberry; and the red eyes shut again ostentatiously, without troubling to climb to Jan's face.
"I have," said he, with dry emphasis. It was either too dry or else not emphatic enough for Mulberry.
"You're late, then, hear that? Like your cheek to be late. Now you can wait for me."
