One of this party was a tallish man, so dressed as to look like a hunchback, and a hunchback so tall was a most singular figure.  He had joined them in the dark, and the rest were unable to guess who it could be, and he, for his part, would not tell.  They thumped him and pushed him, but at each attack he only leaped from the ground like a circus clown, and made his tin horn utter so doleful a complaint as set the party in an uproar of laughter.  They could not be sure who he was, but he was a funny fellow to have along with them at any rate.

He was not only funny, but he was evidently fearless.  For when they came to the castle it was all dark and still.  Bill Day said that it looked “powerful juberous to him.  Ole Andy meant to use shootin’-ir’ns, and didn’t want to be pestered with no lights blazin’ in his eyes.”  But the tall hunchback cleared the fence at a bound, and told them to come on “ef they had the sperrit of a two-weeks-old goslin into ’em.”  So the bottle was passed round, and for very shame they followed their ungainly leader.

“Looky here, boys,” said the hunchback, “they’s one way that we can fix it so’s ole Grizzly can’t shoot.  They’s a little shop-place, a sort of a shed, agin the house, on the side next to the branch.  Let’s git in thar afore we begin, and he can’t shoot.”

The orchestra were a little stupefied with drink, and they took the idea quickly, never stopping to ask how they could retreat if Andrew chose to shoot.  Jim West thought things looked scaly, but he warn’t agoin’ to backslide arter he’d got so fur.

When they got into Andrew’s shop, where he had a new and beautiful skiff in building, the tall hunchback shut the door, and the rest did not notice that he put the key in his pocket.

That serenade!  Such a medley of discordant sounds, such a clatter and clangor, such a rattle of horse-fiddle, such a bellowing of dumb-bull, such a snorting of tin horns, such a ringing of tin pans, such a grinding of skillet-lids!  But the house remained quiet.  Once Bill Day thought that he heard a laugh within.  Julia may have lost her self-control.  She was so happy, and a little unrestrained fun was so strange a luxury!

At last the door between the house and shop was suddenly opened, and Julia, radiant as she could be, stood on the threshold with a candle in her hand.

“Come in, gentlemen.”

But the gentlemen essayed to go out.

“Locked in, by thunder!” said Jim West, trying the outside door of the shop.

“We heard you were coming, gentlemen, and provided a little entertainment.  Come in!”

“Come in, boys,” said the hunchback, “don’t be afeard of nobody.”

Mechanically they followed the hunchback into the room, for there was nothing else to be done.  A smell of hot coffee and the sight of a well-spread table greeted their senses.

“Welcome, my friends, thrice welcome!” said Andrew.  “Put down your instruments and have some supper.”