The words "bottle!" "audacity!" and "nerves!" reached my ear disjointedly.

I called out "Good-by! till to-morrow;" heard a responsive groan of disgust; then opened the front door, and plunged out into the dark and rainy night.
It might have been the dropping of water from the cottage roofs while I passed through the village, or the groundless alarm of my own suspicious fancy, but I thought I was being followed as I walked back to the inn.
Two or three times I turned round abruptly.

If twenty men had been at my heels, it was too dark to see them.

I went on to the inn.
The people there were not gone to bed; and I sent for the landlord to consult with him about a conveyance.

Perhaps it was my suspicious fancy again; but I thought his manner was altered.