Hunston hung his head at this way of putting it.
"No matter; he shall die for this."
"Perhaps so; but meanwhile, there is possibility of ransom. The interests of the band can not be allowed to suffer for you."
Hunston was silent.
He sheathed his knife, but his silent resolves were not less murderous for being unuttered.
"Lead the way, Simon," said the brigand who appeared to be chief spokesman.
Simon stepped onward, and behind him young Jack and Harry were forced to march.
They were walking into captivity, but they could not help themselves; and so they wisely obeyed, so as not to give their captors fresh excuse for further barbarity.
The road which Simon led them was a gloomy and narrow defile that wound precipitously up among the hills.
Sometimes the rocks overhung the road, so that the sky was barely visible, and here and there heaven was altogether obscured, for they had to walk through tunnels in the solid rock—too solid apparently to have been worked by the hand of man.