'
Mr Willet was right. After listening for a few moments, they could
clearly hear, above the roar and tumult out of doors, this shout
repeated; and that with a shrillness and energy, which denoted that it
came from some person in great distress or terror. They looked at each
other, turned pale, and held their breath. No man stirred.
It was in this emergency that Mr Willet displayed something of that
strength of mind and plenitude of mental resource, which rendered him
the admiration of all his friends and neighbours. After looking at
Messrs Parkes and Cobb for some time in silence, he clapped his two
hands to his cheeks, and sent forth a roar which made the glasses dance
and rafters ring--a long-sustained, discordant bellow, that rolled
onward with the wind, and startling every echo, made the night a hundred
times more boisterous--a deep, loud, dismal bray, that sounded like a
human gong. Then, with every vein in his head and face swollen with the
great exertion, and his countenance suffused with a lively purple, he
drew a little nearer to the fire, and turning his back upon it, said
with dignity:
'If that's any comfort to anybody, they're welcome to it. If it an't,
I'm sorry for 'em.
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