"Ben," said the captain, "take this woman away and place her—you know where. I'll attend to the bloke and the kids."
Mrs. Smithers shrunk to the side of her husband, as if to demand that protection which she nevertheless knew he could not afford to give her.
Smithers, however, ventured to lower one of his arms, which he put around her waist.
Scarcely had he done so than a bullet whizzed over his head.
"What did I tell you?" cried the captain. "Up with that hand!"
He was fain to do as he was told, and the hand was removed from his wife's waist, to point once more toward the sky.
Ben, as the captain had called his companion, now seized Mrs. Smithers by the arm.
She resisted his attention, and uttered scream after scream; but her strength was unavailing to cope with the superior force of the ruffian, and she was gradually dragged from the spot toward one of the cavernous recesses formed in the rocks to which we have previously alluded.
When she had finally disappeared from view, the captain turned his gaze upon Smithers.
"Are these two all your children?" he inquired.