“I wish now,” confessed Miss Ketchum, “that we had obeyed him. Don’t you, major?”
“Well,” answered the little man, with a touch of reluctance in his voice, “I must confess, madam, that I believe it would have been much better fo’ us if we had obeyed.”
Barely were these words spoken when, in the pall of darkness near by, a voice demanded:
“Are you ready to depart now? Will you depart at once? Do you, one and all, swear by your God that you will lose no time about going?”.
Needless to say, the sound of that voice affected them all much like a sudden clap of thunder on a clear and sunny day. The woman gave a little scream, the major uttered a smothered oath, the professor gasped for breath, while both Dick and Brad sat bolt upright, their nerves tense.
“Answer at once!” commanded the unseen speaker. “It is your only hope of escaping. Among the Armenians we have enough so-called missionaries, and, therefore, the woman from Boston is not wanted. In the other boat are the old man and the boys against whom the secret police have been warned. It will be easy to cause all of you to vanish from the face of the earth; yet if you pledge yourselves to leave Turkey, you shall be spared.”
“I tell you one thing,” spluttered Zenas Gunn eagerly, “I’ve seen all of Turkey I care to see, and I’ll give you my pledge to leave within twenty-four hours, taking the boys with me.”
“I’ll go—oh, I’ll go!” promised Miss Ketchum.
“And if she goes,” said Major Fitts, “I shall accompany her.”
“Swear it!”