, and find
help to save Jem from being taken away.

"And if they came up and found me gone," he muttered, "they would take
Jem off aboard ship directly, and it would be labour in vain."

"Oh! Let go!"

The words escaped him involuntarily, for whilst he was pondering, some
one had crept into the great loft floor, made a leap, and caught him by
the leg, and, in spite of all his efforts to free himself, the man hung
on till, unable to kick free, Don was literally dragged in and fell,
after clinging for a moment to the cross-beam, heavily upon the floor.

"I've got him!" cried a hoarse voice, which he recognised. "Look sharp
with the light."

Don was on his back half stunned and hurt, and his captor, the
sinister-looking man, was sitting upon his chest, half suffocating him,
and evidently taking no little pleasure in inflicting pain.

Footsteps were hurriedly ascending; then there was the glow of a
lanthorn, and directly after the bluff-looking man appeared, followed by
a couple of sailors, one of whom bore the light. "Got him?"

"Ay, ay! I've got him, sir."

"That's right! But do you want to break the poor boy's ribs? Get off!"

Don's friend, the sinister-looking man, rose grumblingly from his
captive's chest, and the bluff man laughed.

"Pretty well done, my lad," he said. "I might have known you two
weren't so quiet for nothing. There, cast off that rope, and bring him
down."

The sinister man gripped Don's arm savagely, causing him intense pain,
but the lad uttered no cry, and suffered himself to be led down in
silence to floor after floor, till they were once more in the basement.

"Might have broken your neck, you foolish boy," said the bluff man, as a
rough door was opened. "You can stop here for a bit. Don't try any
more games."

He gave Don a friendly push, and the boy stepped forward once more into
a dark cellar, where he remained despairing and motionless as the door
was banged behind him, and locked; and then, as the steps died away, he
heard a groan.

"Any one there?" said a faint voice, followed by the muttered
words,--"Poor Mas' Don. What will my Sally do? What will she do?"

"Jem, I'm here," said Don huskily; and there was a rustling sound in the
far part of the dark place.

"Oh! You there, Mas' Don? I thought you'd got away."

"How could I get away when they had caught you?" said Don,
reproachfully.

"Slid down and run. There was no one there to stop you. Why, I says t