“No, I am all alone—the army is at Oakdale,” answered Nat.
“Again ’tis well. Come in, and I will sit on the throne,” and with a sweeping gesture of welcome, the wild man stepped back into the cabin, and Nat Poole followed.
“Now, what do you make of this?” whispered Roger, looking at Dave in wonder.
“I have an idea, Roger,” answered our hero. “Nat knows that man; in fact, he is well acquainted with him. I think he is going to try to make him a prisoner.” 198
“A prisoner? Oh, I see; for the glory of it, eh?”
“No, to get him back to some sanitarium as quietly as possible. I think Nat would like to do it without anybody around here being the wiser.”
“Oh! Then maybe the fellow is some relative of the Pooles.”
“Possibly, or a close friend. But come on, let us see what happens. We ought to try to capture the man ourselves.”
“To be sure. But I don’t see how we are going to do it. We are unarmed, and they say crazy folks are fearfully strong.”
“We’ll have to watch our chances.”