but if he would show them the way and keep a silent tongue in his head
they would send him a handsome present. He still begged to be released,
stating that he had a delicate wife and young children, and if he should
be away from the farm he would lose his situation, and then what would his
family do during the winter? The robbers thought he seemed a good sort of
a fellow, and if they could only trust him, perhaps they might let him
return, but could they trust him? Dunning protested by all that was sacred
that they might, and promised if they would only let him return home, he
would not breathe to a living soul that he had seen there and he expressed
a hope that they would get through safe and sound without being captured.
The robbers held a short consultation among themselves, in which Dunning
thought he heard proposals of shooting him on the spot. It was to him