Laurence, until at last he made an effort, and forced himself to say abruptly, "Hollin, we had better be going."
"Oh," the girl said. "But, shan't you wait for him?" She pointed; and they looked to see another dragon in the sky, coming in their direction.
"A fine thing," Miller said, "a fine thing. Expected four days ago in camp and I find you here, Captain Hollin, wandering around where you oughtn't be, and taking a convicted felon into good society."
Hollin flushed and said sharply, "If I have done wrong, Captain Miller, you may be sure I will explain myself to those as has the right to ask me to account for it. We have been looking for the dragon we was sent to fetch, seeing as how those fellows in the breeding ground have forgot their duty and gone, and the beasts all scattered."
"What?" Miller said, forgetting to be pompous in his alarm. "All of them gone, out of the grounds? Where have they got to, what have they been eating - "
Miller's courier beast, Devastatio, was markedly smaller than Elsie, who was big for a Winchester. Hollin had known better than most new young courier-captains how to see about the proper feeding of a dragon, and he had already been on friendly terms with most of the herdsmen around the bigger coverts, a further advantage. Devastatio had landed showily, nearly strutting the last few strides into the clearing, and having realized too late he was outweighed, was now trying his best to puff out his chest, and surreptitiously to climb upon a hillock. Elsie eyed him puzzledly, and then offered, "Would you like to see my plate?"
"Gentlemen," Laurence said sharply, seeing Miller dragging Hollin through all the narrative of their search. "We have no time for this. The French have been sighted nearby, and we must go and bring the intelligence to camp at once."
"We already know about the French being here, there has been some fighting," Miller said. "Some bright militia-officer has raised the countryside and beat them properly over at Wembley, and at Harlesden last night. That is why we are here: I am carrying a colonel's commission for him."
"Oh!" the young lady said, having hung back a little from their conversation. "Have they beat, at Harlesden? Georgie will have been there - I must go tell Mother - " She half-turned, then turned back and curtseyed, and then hesitantly raised her hand a little, and Hollin stepping towards her brought it to his lips, also a little hesitantly, and said, "Your servant, Miss Jemson, and I hope my rounds might bring me again - "
"I hope so, too," she said, pink, and having dared so far, turned and fled.
"Sir, if the news is in, and Miller will tell them where we are, we might keep looking - " Hollin said, turning back, his own cheeks a little ruddy.
"Oh, no; no, thank you, there'll be none of that," Miller said. "Your orders is not to be wandering over all Creation, it is to go and get the dragon and come back; well, if you haven't got the dragon, you can do what is left, and that is to come back. If they want you to keep looking, they will tell you so. We will fly in company, like we ought when there is news like this to be bringing back, in case one of us is brought down. A hundred dragons out wild, eating people as like as cows? I don't know what you was thinking not to return at once, except to save the neck of one as don't deserve - "
"Captain Miller - " Hollin said.
"Enough," Laurence said. "I do not intend to be the subject of quarreling in circumstances such as these. Captain Hollin, we had some rational hope of finding Temeraire quickly, having arrived so shortly after the dispersal of the breeding grounds; now we can have none. I am very sensible of your generosity, but will not trespass upon it further. Let us go at once."
He had steeled himself to it, and now wanted nothing more than to have it over. The quicker he returned, the less damage would be done by his having kept them out, selfishly, further contrary to his duty; success only could have made it forgivable. Even then he ought to have been reproached. Granby was right, all along. His discipline had been wholly corrupted, Laurence saw now. Perhaps the effects were all the worse because he had not