Of course; and that was what was meant about any one being on the watch.
My heart now beat violently, and I began to hasten my steps to get on before the party, and warn Mr Raydon of their coming. But at the end of a minute I had to check my pace, and follow more cautiously, as I tried to think where I could get before them; and the more I tried to think, the more confused and troubled I grew, for, as far as I could make out, there was no way but the track which they seemed to know; and to have gone to right or left meant to encounter some place impossible to climb in the dark, or a precipice down which I might fall. It was difficult enough in broad daylight—impossible in the dark; and in spite of all my thinking, I was at last despairingly compelled to confess that until the open ground was reached in front of the Fort, I could do nothing but follow while the enemy led.
I thought of a dozen plans to warn the defenders of the Fort, so as to put them on the alert, but the only one that seemed possible, was to wait till we were all pretty near, and then fire my rifle to give the alarm.
That I knew meant making the ruffians turn on me, but though the risk was great, I hoped to dash by them in the darkness, and reach the gate.
All this time I had been cautiously creeping along behind the gang, for at a word from their leader, the men had suddenly become very silent, and the only sound to be heard was the rattle of a stone kicked to one side, or a low whisper, evidently an order about the advance.
A curious feeling of despair was creeping over me, and I felt more and more convinced that I could not get to the front, so that all I should be able to do would be to wait till they were near the gate, and about to scale the palisade, for that was what I felt sure they meant to do, and then fire, let the result be what it might to me.
My difficulties grew greater every minute, as we advanced, and the strain upon me heavier than I could bear. In anticipation I saw the scoundrels creeping up to the Fort, cautiously getting over and silencing whoever was on guard; and then, with a feeling of horror that was almost unbearable, I saw in imagination the whole place given up to pillage and destruction, at a time too when I knew that there were many bales of valuable furs in the stores.
My progress at last became like a nightmare, in which I was following the attacking party, and unable to do anything to help my friends; so that when we were within, as a German would say, half an hour of our destination, I was in no wise startled or surprised to faintly make out in the darkness the figures of two men who suddenly rose up on either side of me; a hand was clapped over my mouth, and I was dragged down, and a knee placed on my chest.
I divined it all in an instant, and tried to resign myself to my fate, as I saw that, being well on their guard against surprise, two of the gang had fallen back and seen me, with the result I have described, so that I was absolutely stunned after a feeble struggle, when a voice at my ear said in a harsh whisper—
“What is the meaning of this treachery, Gordon? Who are those men?”