“No, that I hadn’t! And a good thing I hadn’t too! for if I’d a known that lady had a been kept a prisoner here in my house, I’d a pitched her jailers neck and heels out o’ the windows, and then set the dogs on ’em!”
“But that would have been very unjust to them, and injurious to the lady you wish to befriend. And especially it would have been the very greatest injustice to the younger officer, who has been our partisan from the first.”
“Eh! what? One of them jailers your partisan?”
“Yes; let me explain,” said Mr. Berners. And he commenced and detailed all the circumstances of their acquaintance and relations with Robert Munson.
“And so, out of gratitude for the kindness this lady showed him in his childhood, he got himself put on this service o’ purpose to watch his opportunity of reskying her.”
“Just so.”
“Well, he’s an honest fellow, that he is!” said the farmer, approvingly.
“Now, Mr. Nye, all you have to do, if you wish to help us, is just to let us go free. When we are gone, keep the house quiet, and let the elder officer sleep as long as possible, for the longer he sleeps the farther we shall get away from pursuit.”
“I’ll lock him up and keep him prisoner for a month, if necessary.”
“But it is not necessary. A day’s start is all that we shall need, and that, I think, you can secure to us, by simply letting the man sleep as long as he will. And furthermore, I may ask you to be cautious and not to betray our friend Robert Munson’s agency in our escape.”