Down-stairs the woman was moving about her work, stopping now and
then for a moment to listen to the sounds overhead.
"Why don't they get to bed and to sleep!" she muttered at length
with an oath. "Bill and the boys must be sharp set for their supper
and will come in most ready to take my head off. 'Tain't no fault o'
mine, but that'll not make no difference. Well, I'll call 'em anyhow,
for them fellers ain't comin' down agin to-night."
So saying she set her light in the window and hurried her culinary
operations, for she was getting ready a second and more plentiful
meal than the one she had set before the travellers.
Ere many moments four men, great broad-shouldered, brawny, rough
looking fellows, on whose faces ignorance, vice and cruelty were
plainly stamped, came creeping stealthily in at the open door.
"Well, old girl, what have you bagged?" asked the eldest, in whom we
recognize Bill Shark, the confederate of Brannon and Lyttleton. "I
conclude it's somethin', since we've been kept a starvin' till this
time o' night."
His tone, though suppressed, was savage, and his look angry and
sullen.
She held up a warning finger.
"Hush-sh-sh! they're up and awake yit. More quiet, boys. Let up now,
and go to work. The vittles is all on table."
"Are ye a goin' to tell me what I asked?" demanded her husband in a
fierce undertone, as he sat down and began helping himself liberally
to the smoking viands, but looking more at her than at them.
"It's him," she answered, with a slight chuckle; "and he's as nice
lookin' and soft spoken a chap as ever you see."
"An' what o' that?" sneered one of the sons. "His purty face ain't a
goin' to save him."
"Maybe not, Abner; but I'm afeard they're too strong fur ye."
"How many?"
"Six, countin' the nigger, and one on 'em's Tom Johnson."
This announcement was received with a volley of oaths and curses, not
loud but deep, Bill adding:
"He'll count two at least."
"The other two fellers'll have to come and lend a hand whether or
no," said Abner gloomily. "Don't you let 'em off, dad. With them and
Brannon we'll be seven. And if we come on 'em asleep, why, we'll not
have such hard work, I take it."
"Time they were asleep now. How long since they went up there?"
There was an angry gleam in Bill's eyes as he turned them upon his
wife.
"Long enough to have got to sleep twic't over, I should think. But
they hain't done it. Hark! they're a movin' about, and talkin' too, I
believe."
"Then you didn't mind my orders, and ought to be licked."
A volley of oaths followed, and he half rose from his chair and
seized her by the arm.
But his sons interfered.
"Are you mad, old man?" pulling him back into his seat; "we'll not
have a ghost of a chance if you kick up a row now."
He yielded, though with an ill grace, and the woman, not in the least
disconcerted by his brutal behavior, said in her ordinary tone, as
she replenished his empty cup:
"'Twasn't no fault o' mine, Bill; I'd a drugged 'em, every one, if
that nigger would a took his eyes off o' me for a single moment; but
it did beat all, the way he watched me back and forad and all the
time. I hadn't the least mite of a chance."
This explanation seemed to appease the man's wrath, and the meal was
concluded without further disturbance.
A whispered consultation followed; then two of the younger ruffians
went out and plunged into the forest in the direction from whence
they had come.
At no very great distance they came out upon a little clearing where
stood a tiny cabin, roughly but strongly built of unhewn logs, no
window save an aperture scarce a foot square near the roof, and the
one door, of solid oak planks, furnished with heavy bolts and bars
upon the outside.
This was the prison intended by Lyttleton for the safe keeping of
Clendenin, the man to whom he owed his life.
Heretofore it had been used by the Sharks as a depository for their
ill-gotten gains.
Near at hand, but concealed from view by the thick undergrowth, the
Englishman and his valet lay sleeping upon the ground, wrapped each
in his blanket, and with sword and gun within reach of his hand.
A few minutes' search disclosed their whereabouts to the Sharks, and
it was no gentle waking that ensued.
"Ho! rouse up, I tell ye, and wake your master!" growled Abner,
touching Hans with his foot. "You're both wanted at the house."
"Yaas," grunted Hans, sleepily, "but I dinks you petter leaves
mynheer to dake his sleep."
"What is it? What's wanted this time of night?" demanded Lyttleton,
starting up and glancing about him in no amiable mood.
"You're wanted," was the gruff, unceremonious reply. "Game's bagged,
but such a lot we must come on 'em as strong as possible."
"What! you've got Clendenin?"
Lyttleton's tone was jubilant.
"Humph! he's there, but he ain't took yet, and there's four more
stout fellows beside the nigger, and one on 'ems ekal to any two o'
us. So come along, both o' ye."
"No," said Lyttleton, "you have undertaken the job, and it's no part
of my plan to assist in the fray. I'll pay liberally when it's done;
but as I told you in the first place, I can't have Clendenin get
sight of either my face or that of my valet."
"Black your faces, or tie a handkercher over 'em," suggested Abner's
brother.
"No; he'd recognize our voices."
"You're a----coward," sneered Abner. "No use argufying with the
white-livered critter, Josh. He won't git his job done, 'tain't
likely, if he don't help, that's all. Come on back. P'raps Brannon's
there by now, and if the fellers'll only quiet down to sleep, I for
one am willin' to try it for the sake o' the plunder, and the cash
we'll have in hand afore we let these ere chaps have their way with
the one they're wantin' to git shut of."
"What a vulgar wretch!" muttered Lyttleton, in a tone of extreme
disgust, as the two ruffians turned and left the spot to make their
way rapidly back to the house.
They found Brannon there, waiting with the others for the slight
occasional sounds overhead to cease, as they dared not make the
desired attack with their intended victims awake and prepared to meet
and repel it.
But they waited in vain; our travellers hearing men's voices,
conversing in subdued tones in the room below, understood for what
they were waiting, and not wishing for a fight, took care to let them
know that they had not all succumbed to sleep.
In fact the hunter, listening intently with his ear to a crack in the
floor, heard the woman say, "Not yet, they're not asleep yet, for I
hear 'em movin'."
"Ye do, eh?" he growled in undertone, "well, ye'll likely keep on a
hearin' it till them he wolves o' yourn goes back to their den in the
woods."
At last as a faint streak of dawn began to show itself above the
eastern horizon, the ruffians drew close together and held a
whispered consultation, the result of which was the decision to
give up attacking here, leave at once, and hastening on ahead of
the travellers, post themselves at a certain spot favorable for an
ambuscade, where they would play the highwayman, "relieving the
fellers o' their plunder," as they expressed it, and letting them
go with their lives if they were wise enough not to show fight, but
taking Clendenin prisoner for the sake of slaking Brannon's thirst
for revenge and obtaining Lyttleton's offered reward.
The first part of their plan was at once put into execution, and with
no small sense of relief our travellers heard them depart.
"Up, boys, now's our time," said the hunter; "day's breakin', the
thieves has left for the present, and we'd best git out o' this
instanter."
The others being of the same opinion, they hastily gathered up their
guns and saddle-bags, unbarred the door, and as nearly in a body as
might be, the hunter taking the lead, descended the step-ladder to
the room below.
The woman nodding in her chair beside the smouldering embers of the
fire, was its only occupant.
She started up, saying, "Why you're airly, ain't ye? I hadn't thought
of gettin' breakfast yet."
"Never mind, we don't want any, mother," said Johnson dryly.
"Why, ye ain't goin' a'ready? ye'd better stay for breakfast. I'll
not be long gettin' it."
"No," they answered, "we must start at once."
"Ye didn't sleep much, I think," she remarked sullenly, following
them to the door.
"How do you know?" queried Johnson, giving her a sharp look.
"Oh, I was up myself, and I heard ye movin' around."
Clendenin stepped back to enquire, and pay her charges for the
entertainment of the party, and thought she eyed him strangely during
that transaction, with a sort of repressed eagerness and cupidity,
and somewhat as if she were trying to estimate his strength, and
calculate whether she dare measure it with her own, and would gain
anything thereby.
He puzzled over it for a moment as he hastened to rejoin his
companions, who were at the stable busied in saddling their horses,
then dismissed it from his thoughts with the conclusion that it was
his purse she wanted to secure.
It was now quite light and the sun began to show his face above the
treetops, as they mounted and away, felicitating themselves on their
fortunate escape.
"I see now," said Kenneth in tones of thankfulness, "why that
seemingly unfortunate delay was sent me. It was certainly a special
providence."
"Ho, comrades!" cried the hunter, suddenly reining in his steed
across the path so as to bring the whole party to a halt. "I have a
thought!"
"Better keep it for a nest egg then, Tom," laughed Collins,
overflowing with animal spirits in view of their recent deliverance.
"No, I hadn't, Sam; I'd better by half use it to save our plunder, if
not our lives. You must know, lads, that Tom Johnson's no stranger to
these here woods, and knows the trail better'n the doc there, and the
rest o' you readin' men, knows a book."
"Now, Tom, my boy, that hasn't an over modest sound. But what's that
thought of yours? Let's have it at once."
"Listen then. About six or seven miles furder on, there's a place
where the trail runs through a little valley, between two hills
that's covered thick with trees and bushes; and now I tell you them
cut-throats is just lyin' in wait there, Injun style, to ketch us
between two fires as we come along."
"Then what's to be done?" was asked in various tones of inquiry and
dismay.
"Why, we'll just keep out o' the trap. I'll take ye round it. I know
the way, and though it'll give us a few more miles, and hard ones at
that, it'll be better than makin' ourselves a target, or rather half
a dozen of 'em, for those scoundrels to shoot at. Won't it?"
"Yes, yes," from all the voices in unison.
The hunter wheeled his horse and galloped on, the rest following in
single file.
He kept the trail for a while, then struck off into the thick woods,
and for a couple of hours they had a toilsome time, pushing their way
through thickets, leaping logs and fording one or two streams; then
taking the ordinary trail again, beyond the point of danger, they
were able to go forward with comparative ease and comfort.
With the purpose to make his assaulting party as strong as possible,
Bill Shark sent Brannon to urge Lyttleton and his valet to join them
where they were to lie in ambush.
Lyttleton once again roused from slumber, received the messenger
surlily, declined to go with him, but fearful of the consequences of
utter refusal to comply with the demand, for the message was couched
in terms that make it such, promised to join them shortly, after
refreshing himself with food; and made Brannon describe the locality
and manner of reaching it so particularly as to enable him to find it
without a guide.
The moment Brannon was out of earshot, Lyttleton turned to his valet.
"What say you, Hans, are those fellows to be trusted not to turn on
us, if it happens to suit their fancy, after they have finished with
the other party?"
"Mynheer, I dinks dey is von bad lot."
"Then we won't put ourselves in their power. Listen; we will not
join them, but will hide in some place where we can watch their
proceedings unknown to them; and if events don't turn out as we could
wish, we will slip away through the woods and continue our journey,
and so escape their hands. Now kindle a fire and prepare me a cup of
strong coffee."
With no small difficulty, and damage to their clothing from thorns
and briers, master and man at length succeeded in taking up a
position advantageous for the carrying out of Lyttleton's plans.
Shark's party had divided, posting themselves three on one side of
the little valley, three on the other, and less than half way up the
hills.
Lyttleton's ambush was on the eastern of the two hills, considerably
higher up, where from behind a screen of bushes and interlacing vines
he could see all that might occur in the valley below.
He found, to his satisfaction, that he could also overhear whatever
was said by the ruffians in an ordinary tone of voice.
The first sound that greeted his ear was a sullen growl from the
elder Shark, familiarly styled Bill.
"What's a-keepin' that thar confounded Britisher and his Dutchman? I
tell you, lads, they're a brace o' cowards and don't mean to take no
share o' this here fray. I'd go after 'em and give 'em a lesson if I
was sure o' gettin' back in time, but the other fellers may be along
now any minnit."
"I likes to send de lie de droat down off dot von pig schoundrel!"
muttered Hans, laying his hand on the hunting-knife in his belt.
An imperative gesture from Lyttleton commanded silence.
Brannon was saying something in answer to Bill's remark, but the
tones were so low that Lyttleton could catch only a word here and
there, not enough to learn its purport.
A long silence followed, broken occasionally by a muttered oath or
exclamation of impatience, then a low-toned consultation, which
resulted in the despatching of one of the younger villains to
reconnoitre and try to discover why their intended victims delayed
their appearance.
Another long waiting, and then the scout returned.
"Been all the way back to the house," he reported, loud enough for
every word to reach the listeners above, "and not a sign of 'em to be
seen. The old woman says they left thar at sun-up, so if any o' you
kin tell what's become of 'em it's more'n I kin."
"Must ha' smelt a rat somehow, and pushed through the woods another
way," cried Bill, pouring out a volley of oaths and curses so
blasphemous, and in tones so ferocious, that Lyttleton's blood almost
curdled in his veins.
Then his heart nearly stood still with affright as the ruffian went
on, in the same savage tones:
"Well, there ain't no use in waitin' here no longer. They've got
off safe and sound, and we not a penny the richer; but there's that
Britisher, with a pocket full of tin that'll come as good to us as
the other fellers'. Let's hunt him up and help ourselves. Easy work
it'll be, six agin two."
Hans and his master exchanged glances. Lyttleton held up a finger in
token of silence, and again they strained their ears to hear the talk
going on below.
The ruffians seemed to be of one mind in regard to robbing him,
impelled to it by their cupidity and their indignation at his
failure to join them according to promise.
Fortunately for him they had no suspicion of his vicinity, and
presently set off in a body to search for him at the scene of his
late bivouac.
The moment they were out of sight and hearing he and Hans rose,
scrambled down the hill, mounted their horses, which they had left at
its foot, concealed in the thick wood, and striking into the trail
at the nearest point, pushed on their way eastward with all possible
despatch.