"Four fellers had come behind him, as he was about turnin' into the street in which he lived,—they had dragged him from her,—she follered them on to the pier, cryin', 'help! murder!' and they'd tied him, and put him into a boat and made out into the river. As she told me this story, I looked about me for a boat,—thar wasn't a boat to be seen,—so I detarmined to jump in and swim arter 'em anyhow, though the river was full of ice and the wind a-blowin' like Lucifer—"
"You leaped into the river?"
"No, I did not. For as the gal stood cryin', an' moanin', an' p'intin', out into the dark thick night, the boat came back, and the four gallus birds jumped on the wharf—"
"And the child,—O, my God! the son of Gulian?—"
"They'd hove him overboard!"
The old man uttered a heart-rending groan, and raised his hands to heaven.
"Fatality!" he cried.
"I made at 'em at once,—and we j'ined in, four to one, teeth an' toe nails. 'Don't give it up so easy!' I said, but what's the use o' talkin'? I broke a jaw for one of 'em an' caved the crust in for another; but I wa'n't a match for slung-shot behind the ear. They knocked me stoopid. An' when I opened my eyes again, I found myself in their hands, arrested on the charge o' havin' murdered young Somers, an' o' robbin' Isr'el Yorke. They tied me, took me to a room up town, whar they war j'ined by Blossom,—they tried to gouge money out o' me, but as I hadn't any, it wa'n't so easy. When they got tired o' that, I purtended to sleep, an' overheer'd their talk. The hansum Colonel, Tarleton, my pertikler friend, had hired the four to waylay the boy, and carry him out into the river. Blossom didn't know anythin' about it; he swore like a fiery furnace when they told him of it. Arter a while, as I found they were goin' to take me to the Tombs if they couldn't git any money out o' me, I broke for the door, and came away in a hurry, an' here I am."
"And the child of Gulian is gone! Fatality! Fatality!" groaned Ezekiel Bogart.
"In the river,—tied and gagged,—in the river," sullenly replied Ninety-One; and the next moment he uttered a wild cry and leaped to his feet.