Miss Strong returned shortly and found the children asleep on the knees
of their uncle. In a moment Silas turned his ear and listened.
"Hark!" he whispered.
They could hear some one approaching on the dark trail. A man oddly
picturesque, with a rifle on his shoulder, strode into the firelight.
He wore knee-breeches and a coat of buckskin. He had a rugged face, a
sturdy figure, and was, one would have guessed, some sixty years of age.
A fringe of thin, white hair showed below his cap. He had a white
mustache, through which a forgotten cigar protruded. His black eyes
glowed in the firelight beneath silvered brows. He nodded as they
greeted him. His ruddy face wrinkled thoughtfully as he turned to
Gordon.
"It's a long time," said he, offering his hand.
"Some years," Gordon answered, as he took the hand of Dunmore.
"W-welcome!" said Silas Strong.
"Boneka!" Dunmore exclaimed, gruffly, but with a faint smile. For years
it had been his customary word of greeting.
"The Emperor and his court!" he went on, as he looked about him. "Who
are these?" He surveyed the sleeping children.
"The Duke and Duchess of Hillsborough--nephew and niece of the Emperor,"
Master answered, giving them titles which clung to Socky and Sue for a
twelvemonth.
"The first children I've ever seen in the woods except my own," said the
white-haired man.
Zeb ran around the chair of the Emperor, growling and leaping playfully
at Socky and Sue.
"The court jester!" said Dunmore, looking down at the dog.
He stood a moment with his back to the blazing logs.
Then he went to the chair of the Emperor, and put his hand under the
chin of little Sue and looked into her face. In half a moment he took
her in his arms and sat down by the fireside. The child was yawning
wearily.
"Heigh-ho!" he exclaimed; "let's away to the Isles of Rest."
He rocked back and forth as he held her against his breast and sang this
lullaby:
"Jack Tot was as big as a baby's thumb,
And his belly could hold but a drop and a crumb,
And a wee little sailor was he--Heigh-ho!
A very fine sailor was he.
'He made his boat of a cocoa-nut shell,