"That'll be too easy," said the man. "And suppose we was what you think, what would we be doing in the meantime? I ask you what?"
Mr. Jonstone interrupted in a soft voice.
"Oh, quit blustering and threatening," he said.
"Say," said a man who had not yet spoken, "do you two sprigs of jasmine ever patronize the 'movies'? And, if so, did you ever look your fill on a film called 'Held for Ransom'? You folks has a look of being kind o' well to do, and it looks to me as if you'd have to pay for it."
"Why quarrel with them?" said Maud, with gravity and displeasure in her voice, but no fear. "Things are bad enough as they are. I saw that the minute we came in. Just one minute too late, it seems."
"That's horse-sense," admitted one of the men. "And when this rain holds up, one of us will take a message to your folks saying as how you are stopping at an expensive hotel and haven't got money enough to pay your bill."
"And that," said Colonel Meredith, "will only leave three of you to guard us. Once," he turned to Maud, "I spent six hours in a Turkish prison."
"What happened?" she asked.
"I didn't like it," he said, "and left."
"This ain't Turkey, young feller, and we ain't Turks. If you don't like the cave you can lump it, but you can't leave."