“The George and the Dragon,” repeated the horseman, expanding his long hands over the fire which he had approached.  “Saint George, King George, the Dragon, the Devil:  it is a very grand idol, that outside your door, sir.  You catch all sorts of worshippers—­courtiers, fanatics, scamps:  all’s fish, eh?  Everybody welcome, provided he drinks like one.  Suppose you brew a bowl or two of punch.  I’ll stand it.  How many are we? Here—­count, and let us have enough.  Gentlemen, I mean to spend the night here, and my horse is in the stable.  What holiday, fun, or fair has got so many pleasant faces together?  When I last called here—­for, now I bethink me, I have seen the place before—­you all looked sad.  It was on a Sunday, that dismalest of holidays; and it would have been positively melancholy only that your sexton—­that saint upon earth—­Mr. Crooke, was here.”  He was looking round, over his shoulder, and added:  “Ha! don’t I see him there?”

Frightened a good deal were some of the company.  All gaped in the direction in which, with a nod, he turned his eyes.

“He’s not thar—­he can’t be thar—­we see he’s not thar,” said Turnbull, as dogmatically as old Joe Willet might have delivered himself—­for he did not care that the George should earn the reputation of a haunted house.  “He’s met an accident, sir:  he’s dead—­he’s elsewhere—­and therefore can’t be here.”

Upon this the company entertained the stranger with the narrative—­which they made easy by a division of labour, two or three generally speaking at a time, and no one being permitted to finish a second sentence without finding himself corrected and supplanted.

“The man’s in Heaven, so sure as you’re not,” said the traveller so soon as the story was ended.  “What! he was fiddling with the church bell, was he, and d——­d for that—­eh?  Landlord, get us some drink.  A sexton d——­d for pulling down a church bell he has been pulling at for ten years!”

“You came, sir, by the Dardale-road, I believe?” said the doctor (village folk are curious).  “A dismal moss is Dardale Moss, sir; and a bleak clim’ up the fells on t’ other side.”

“I say ‘Yes’ to all—­from Dardale Moss, as black as pitch and as rotten as the grave, up that zigzag wall you call a road, that looks like chalk in the moonlight, through Dunner Cleugh, as dark as a coal-pit, and down here to the George and the Dragon, where you have a roaring fire, wise men, good punch—­here it is—­and a corpse in your coach-house.  Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.  Come, landlord, ladle out the nectar.  Drink, gentlemen—­drink, all.  Brew another bowl at the bar.  How divinely it stinks of alcohol!  I hope you like it, gentlemen:  it smells all over of spices, like a mummy.  Drink, friends.  Ladle, landlord.  Drink, all.  Serve it out.”

The guest fumbled in his pocket, and produced three guineas, which he slipped into Turnbull’s fat palm.