d the
shuttered window on the further wall. The girls watched it, and, their
eyes becoming used to the shadowy room, they could now distinguish the
pile of cannon-balls in the opposite corner, and behind them a small
cannon and a keg. They could see, too, the outlines of the doorway.

"How long do you think we shall have to stay here?" whispered Anne, as
the dreary fearful moments dragged by.

"I don't know, dear," answered the elder girl, "but we mustn't be
afraid."

The hours went by and the little edge of light around the high shuttered
window began to fade a little, and the girls knew that the long summer
day was fading to twilight, and that it had been about noon when they
came to the house. A great fear now took possession of Rose's thoughts,
the fear for her father's safety. She was sure that unless some harm had
befallen him he would have found them before this time.

"Rose!" Anne's sharp whisper interrupted her thoughts. "If I could get
up to that window I could get out and go after help. The window isn't so
very high; it isn't as if we were up-stairs."

At that very moment the big door swung open, and the man entered. He had
a candle in one hand and carried an armful of rough gray blankets which
he dropped on the floor beside the girls, and instantly, without a word,
departed, and the girls heard the bolts shot on the outside.

"Those blankets are for us to sleep on. Oh, Anne, what has he done to my
dear father?" and Rose began to cry bitterly.

"Rose, he's coming back!" warned Anne, but the girl could no longer
restrain her sobs and their jailer entered, this time carrying the big
lunch basket which Aunt Hetty had put under the seat when they drove off
so happily from Brewster.

"Here's your own grub," said the man roughly. "Your father'll have to
put up with what I give him."

"You--you--won't kill my father, will you?" sobbed Rose.

"Oh, no, no!" answered the man, and then apparently regretting his more
friendly tone added, "But I reckon I ought to, coming here a-peekin' an'
a-pryin' into what don't concern him," and he set the basket down on the
iron chest with such a thud that it fairly bounced.

"Oh, he wasn't; I was the one who peeked at the guns," said Anne.

"Oho! Peekin' at the guns! Well, I've got you now where you can't peek
much," came the gruff answer.

"Won't you leave the candle?" asked Rose.

"I guess not," he answered with a little laugh, and pointed toward the
keg. "Look at