from the first moment Pierre began to speak in a tone of
command, Horry Sims understood he was in danger, not of a mere flogging,
but of something he could not explain to himself, therefore was his
fright all the greater.

When little Frenchie, while we were circling around the building,
threatened vengeance even to the shedding of blood if he made any
outcry, the lad was so terrified that even though he had had fair
opportunity I question whether he could have raised his voice
sufficiently loud to have been heard a dozen paces away.

He was as limp as any rag in my grasp as we forced him along, and for an
instant I feared the cowardly cur would fall helpless from sheer terror
of that which he knew not the nature.

Within the time it would take a tongue-tied man to count ten, we had
hustled Horry Sims from the southerly corner of Master Bemis's shop
around to the rear, where was the shed of which I had told little
Frenchie, and again did fortune favor us, for no horses were stabled
there, and the rude structure was so nearly filled with rubbish of all
kinds that it would have been impossible to have sheltered even a mule
beneath the crazy roof.

We entered with our prisoner, Pierre leading the way grasping Horry by
the coat-collar, while I brought up the rear with my arm around the
Tory's neck so that I might keep a hand clapped over his mouth.

"Shut the door, and, if it be possible, bar it so that no one may come
without giving due warning," little Frenchie said to Saul, and my cousin
obeyed as meekly as a well whipped cur obeys his master.

There was a crazy affair made of puncheon planks which had served as
door, but it hung loosely on its hinges, and I question whether it had
been used for many a year; but Saul was by this time so intent on doing
whatsoever he might to repair the mischief wrought while his temper had
the best of him, that it was as if he had the strength of two men.

While Pierre was looking about him trying to plan something in his mind,
my cousin had the barrier closed and fastened with four or five short
lengths of logs. It was not done so securely but that one from the
outside might force an entrance, yet it would require a minute or two to
effect such purpose, and this was what I fancy little Frenchie counted
on when he gave the command.

"Over yonder," he said, pointing toward the end of the shed where were
several casks and some old boxes, "is the place to which we must take
him."