It struck him now how rash he had been to come upon this lonely drive without any assurance of O'Shea's respectability.
These thoughts came to him because he almost immediately perceived that he was the subject of conversation.

It seemed odd to stand so near them and not understand a word they said.

He heard enough now to know the language they were speaking was the patois that, in those parts, is the descendant of the Jersey French.

These men, then, were Acadians--the boy also, for he gabbled freely to them.

Either they had sinister designs on him, or he was an obstruction to some purpose that they wished to accomplish.