danced round him in
such a singular manner, that, turn which way he would, there stood Jack
Pringle, in some grotesque attitude, intercepting him; and so he edged
him on, till he got him to the pump.

"Jack," said the admiral.

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Don't pump on that fellow now."

"Ay, ay, sir; give us a hand."

Jack laid hold of him by the two ears, and holding him under the pump,
kicked his shins until he completely gathered himself beneath the spout.
It was in vain that he shouted "Murder! help! fire! thieves!" Jack was
inexorable, and the admiral pumped.

Jack turned the fellow's head about in a very scientific manner, so as
to give him a fair dose of hydropathic treatment, and in a few minutes,
never was human being more thoroughly saturated with moisture than was
Sir Francis Varney's servant. He had left off hallooing for aid, for he
found that whenever he did so, Jack held his mouth under the spout,
which was decidedly unpleasant; so, with a patience that looked like
heroic fortitude, he was compelled to wait until the admiral was tired
of pumping.

"Very good," at length he said. "Now, Jack, for fear this fellow catcher
cold, be so good as to get a horsewhip, and see him off the premises
with it."

"Ay, ay, sir," said Jack. "And I say, old fellow, you can take back all
our blessed compliments now, and say you've been flurried a little
yourself; and if so be as you came here as dry as dust, d----e, you go
back as wet as a mop. Won't it do to kick him out, sir?"

"Very well--as you please, Jack."

"Then here goes;" and Jack proceeded to kick the shivering animal from
the garden with a vehemence that soon convinced him of the necessity of
getting out of it as quickly as possible.

How it was that Sir Francis Varney, after the fearful race he had had,
got home again across the fields, free from all danger, and back to his
own house, from whence he sent so cool and insolent a message, they
could not conceive.

But such must certainly be the fact; somehow or another, he had escaped
all danger, and, with a calm insolence peculiar to the man, he had no
doubt adopted the present mode of signifying as much to the
Bannerworths.

The insolence of his servant was, no doubt, a matter of pre-arrangement
with that individual, however he might have set about it con amore. As
for the termination of the adventure, that, of course, had not been at
all calculated upon; but, like most tools of other people's insolence o