Here, as usual after supper, Mr. Purley accompanied his charge to her bedroom, which, to his perplexity, he found to have two doors; the one opening upon the upper hall, and the other communicating with an adjoining vacant chamber.
After some consideration, he solved the difficulty of guarding his prisoner by saying to his assistant:
“Well, Munson, all that can be done is this: one of us will have to sleep across one door, and the other across the other. And as I hav’n’t slept in a room for three nights, I reckon I’ll take the vacant room, and you may take the hall. But mind, don’t forget to draw the key out of the door when you lock it, and put it into your pocket. And mind also, to be sure to pull your mattress quite up to the door and lay directly across it, so that if the lock should be picked, no one can pass without going right over your own body; and, last of all, mind to sleep only with one eye open, or all the other precautions will be of no use at all.”
“I will be very careful, sir,” answered young Bailiff Munson, touching his hat to his superior officer in military style.
“And now, as your legs are younger than mine, I wish you would run down stairs and ask the farmer to send me up a mug of that home-brewed bitter beer he was talking about.”
“Yes, sir,” answered the young bailiff starting off with alacrity, while the elder remained on guard at the door of his charge.
In five minutes or less time, Munson returned with a quart measure of the “home-brewed,” which he handed to Purley.
“Souls and bodies! but it is bitter, sure enough! I have heard of bitter beer, but this beats all for bitterness that ever I tasted! However, the bitterer the better, I suppose; and this is really refreshing,” said Purley, as he drained the mug, and handed it empty to a negro boy, who had just brought in and laid down the mattress upon which Munson was to sleep.
Munson smiled to himself.
Then Purley reiterated all his cautions for the careful guarding of his charge, and at length bade his comrade good-night, and retired to the vacant chamber, to guard the door on that side.