He awoke cold
and stiff, and his sensitive stomach, used to the tenderest indulgence,
was clamouring angrily. He was learning what the cold and hunger,
which, by a skilful manipulation of the laws of his adopted country, he
had been able to mete out to many foolish innocents with no grudging
hand, really were. He went to the top of the tower, and shouted
fruitlessly; he warmed himself by stamping up and down; then he came
and slept again. This was his round all the night through: snatches of
uneasy sleep, cold and hungry awakenings, shoutings, and stampings
round the top of the tower.
Meanwhile Tinker had ridden joyously home, and shown himself in such
cheerful spirits during dinner that Sir Tancred had observed him with
no little suspicion, wondering if it could really be that he had found
opportunities of mischief even in a deer-forest. After dinner Tinker
went into the kitchen, where he found Hamish Beg supping. He talked to
him for a while, on matters of sport; then he said, "I say, you told me
about the headless woman and the red-headed man with his throat cut, at
the Deil's Den, but you never told me about the man in brown who shouts
and waves from the top of the tower, and when you come to it, it's
empty.
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