“Have you got her?” asked another voice, which she recognized as that of the man Simon.
The man who had made her prisoner replied in the affirmative.
“Ask her if she’ll come quietly,” said Simon, “or we’ll settle her off-hand.”
“You hear?” said the other man to Esmeralda.
“I hear,” said Esmeralda through the cloth. “What do you want with me?”
“Don’t worry yourself,” said Simon, with malignant irony. “You’ve got to come along with us dead or alive; you can take your choice.”
“You coward!” said Esmeralda. “If there were only one of the men here!”
“But there ain’t,” chuckled her captor.
“Bring her along,” said Simon, with an impatient oath.
The man who held her raised her in his arms, and Esmeralda felt herself lifted on to a horse. The hoofs must have been muffled, for her quick ears had heard no sound.