Just fancy--he set
himself up against that wall as if he smelt a thief. What could he mean?"
"Why _parbleu_! he heard the dot, dot of my wooden leg, to be sure,
stumping up the tower-stairs," answered the jolly fellow, laughing.
Then setting his lantern on the table--
"That will teach you, friend Gideon, to tie up your dogs. You are
foolishly weak over your dogs--very foolishly. Those beasts of yours
won't be satisfied till they have put us all out of doors. Just this
minute I met Blitzen in the long gallery: he sprang at my leg--see there
are the marks of his teeth in proof of what I say; and it is quite a new
leg--a brute of a hound!"
"Tie up my dogs! That's rather a new idea," said the huntsman. "Dogs tied
up are good for nothing at all; they grow too wild. Besides, was not
Lieverle tied up, after all? See his broken cord."
"What I tell you is not on my own account. When they come near me I
always hold up my stick and put my wooden leg foremost--that is my
discipline. I say, dogs in their kennels, cats on the roof, and the
people in the castle."
Tobias sat down after thus delivering himself of his sentiments, and with
both elbows on the table, his eyes expanding with delight, he confided to
us that just now he was a bachelor.
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