“Yes. But let him go on.”
“And de bunch on his back, an’ de fire a-comin’ out’n his head, and de smoke a-comin’ from his hands, an’ de big white eyes, an’ de white clo’se—oh, mars’r, dis niggah’s in de ground all cobered up.”
“Did he speak?” asked Jeffries, eagerly.
“Oh, sar, dat he did. He stretch an arm out with de smoke a-comin’ from it, an’ he sed, ‘Go back! go back!’ an’ dis niggah done went.”
“The same!” said Jeffries. They turned to him.
“What! did you see it too?” He related the events of the night before the abduction, when he heard the voice in the willows.
Then Walter told of his vain attempt to capture him. They all had heard him, and two had seen him. Curiosity and wonder grew to a great hight, and the fact that Cato had been trying to escape when the apparition appeared to him, was forgotten. Sol brought his gun down with a ring.
“Now, boys,” he said, “thar’s suthin’ up. Ever sence we’ve b’en arter the gal that voice has b’en after us all. Hyar’s the robber den with a dead man in it. Katie’s nowhar ter be found, nyther the feller we think tuk her off. This yar den has b’en abandoned right lately, and I think thar’s robbers and Katie nigh. Now, what have we got toward findin’ her? Nothin’. But, we’ve got ter find her, and she hain’t hyar on this island. So she must be off it. Wal, le’s go back an’ find her. Come on.”
“We’ll tear up Dead-Man’s Forest, but we find her,” shouted the men as they crowded into the boat.
Ten minutes later the island was bare. Bare? no. For in a few moments a man stood in the door of the cabin. Another one appeared; another yet; and in five minutes Captain Downing’s villainous band laughed and talked in front of the cabin. Where had they been concealed?