rk indistinct of the place.
With something dramatic in their taste, the old women had dressed
themselves in sombre habiliments, according to the general aspect of all
things around them; and, as the unfortunate pedler continued to gaze in
wonderment, his fear grew with every progressive step in his
observation. One by one, however, the old women commenced stirring, and,
as they moved, now before and now behind him--his eyes following them on
every side--he at length discovered, amid the group, the small and
delicate form of the very being for whom he sought.

There, indeed, were Lucy Munro and her aunt, holding a passive character
in the strange assembly. This was encouraging; and Bunce, forgetting his
wonder in the satisfaction which such a prospect afforded him,
endeavored to force his way forward to them, when a salutary twitch of
the arm from one of the beldam troop, by tumbling him backward upon the
floor of the cavern, brought him again to a consideration of his
predicament. He could not be restrained from speech, however--though, as
he spoke, the old women saluted his face on all hands with strokes from
brushes of fern, which occasioned him no small inconvenience. But he had
gone too far now to recede; and, in a broken manner--broken as much by
his own hurry and vehemence as by the interruptions to which he was
subjected--he contrived to say enough to Lucy of the situation of
Colleton, to revive in her an interest of the most painful character.
She rushed forward, and was about to ask more from the beleaguered
pedler; but it was not the policy of those having both of them in charge
to permit such a proceeding. One of the stoutest of the old women now
came prominently upon the scene, and, with a rough voice, which it is
not difficult to recognise as that of Munro, commanded the young girl
away, and gave her in charge to two attendants. But she struggled still
to hear, and Bunce all the while speaking, she was enabled to gather
most of the particulars in his narration before her removal was
effected.

The mummery now ceased, and Bunce having been carried elsewhere, the
maskers resumed their native apparel, having thrown aside that which had
been put on for a distinct purpose. The pedler, in another and more
secure department of the robbers' hiding-place, was solaced with the
prospect of a long and dark imprisonment.

In the meantime, our little friend Chub Williams had been made to
undergo his own distinct punis