Sime and Carfrae attended to the kitchen entrance, while he himself made a tour of the ground-floor windows.

For half an hour the empty house was loud with strange sounds.

McGuffog, who was a giant in strength, filled the passage at the verandah end with an assortment of furniture ranging from a grand piano to a vast mahogany sofa, while Saskia and Sir Archie pillaged the bedrooms and packed up the interstices with mattresses in lieu of sandbags.

Dougal on his turn saw fit to approve the work.
"That'll fickle the blagyirds.

Down at the kitchen door we've got a mangle, five wash-tubs, and the best part of a ton o' coal.