CHAPTER XXXI.
THE SECRET WORK GOES ON—WHO IS THE TRAITOR?—THE FALL OF A
FAVOURITE—THE RECRUIT'S MUSINGS—A STRANGE REVELATION.
It was true.
Hunston had been given up by the brigands.
They knew but little of Harkaway, but that little told them that he was not the man to make a false assertion.
They felt sure that Hunston had received more money for the ransom of the boys than he had acknowledged, and so they voted his doom.
Under ordinary circumstances he would have been shot.
As it was, they had learnt so terribly to respect Harkaway that they gave up his enemy in preference to taking the law in their own hands.
Not a day passed but one or more of the brigands suffered at the hands of the enemy whose revenge they had so unwisely provoked.
Let them go armed, with a support of armed men within easy call and on the watch, it could not avail them.