Hester Wright alone stood grave and silent at a little distance from
Dent, She was impatient of the mirth, and there was a troubled, anxious
look on her face. She did not join in any of the songs, and at last,
going up to Mother Bunch, she said a few words in her ear.
"Right you are, child," replied the Irishwoman. "Frinds--we'll now,
if you plaze, stop these tokens of mirth and victory, and attend to
the business of the evening."
Instantly the fiddle ceased; the footsteps became motionless; the
voices died into silence; and a little group of about twenty people
formed a semicircle round Dent. Mother Bunch, who was in the centre
of this group, stepped forward a pace or two. Her brawny arm was bare
to the elbow. She raised it now with a slightly significant gesture.
"Child," she said, addressing the prisoner--for surely as such Dent
had to consider himself now--"I ax you a plain question, and I ax it
in the name of the frinds of love and order here assembled. Will you
confess yourself a guilty man, and own to the maneness of your nature
in concocting a plot to ruin the innocent boy, Will Scarlett? or will
ye keep your lips shut, and feel the power of this right ahrum?" "You're
all a set o' cowards," burst from Dent.
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