It's excellent--I've been tasting it first, lest you
should all be poisoned; and there's more where this come from--oceans
more of it!"
"Hurrah for Stango!"
The captain's voice was heard once more above the uproar, but it
was only for a minute longer. There was a rush of six men toward
Stango; a shouting, scrambling, fighting for the spirits which he
had discovered; a crash of one black bottle to the floor, with the
spirit streaming over the polished boards, and the unceremonious
tilting over of the upper part of the supper-table in the ruffians'
wild eagerness for drink.
"To horse, to horse, men! Have you forgotten how far we have to
go?" cried the captain.
But they had forgotten everything, and did not heed him. They were
drinking strong waters, and were heedless of the hour and the risks
they ran by a protracted stay there. In ten minutes from that time
Saturnalia had set in, and pandemonium seemed to have unloosed
its choicest specimens They sang, they danced, they raved, they
blasphemed, they crowed like cocks, they fired pistols at the
chimney ornaments, they chased the maidservants from one room
to another, they whirled round the room with Mrs. Tarne and Mrs.
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