“Who’s got a better right? You fellows here in this county won’t give me anything, and I have a right to go where I can get to be a captain.”
“Well, untie my feet, will you?” said Leon, who didn’t seem[seem] disposed to discuss this matter with Dan. “You have got them fastened to that sapling until they hurt me.”
Dan was accommodating enough to untie his feet, but he didn’t make any move towards untying his hands. After that he sat down and held a long talk with his prisoner, who, considering the situation in which he was placed, took the matter very coolly. He knew he couldn’t get away, but there would come other times, he thought, when his hands would be at liberty, and then he would try his best at escape. They passed the afternoon in this way, and finally it began to grow dark. Leon was getting hungry, and he knew that Dan was bothered the same way, and consequently he was relieved when his captor said he would try and reach home again and get something.
“But first I must tie you up,” said he.
“Now, what’s the use of going to all that trouble?” said Leon, who couldn’t bear the thought of having that shirt thrust into his mouth for the second time. “I didn’t halloo before.”
“No, of course you didn’t,” said Dan, with a laugh. “’Cause why, the gag wouldn’t let you. I won’t be gone but a little while, and then I will untie you.”
Leon yielded with a very bad grace while Dan was placing the gag in his mouth; and well he might, for there was the revolver, lying within easy reach of his captor’s hand. He was tied up just as he was before, and Dan, after a few parting words, disappeared in the darkness.
“Oh,[“Oh,] how I wish Tom Howe knew where I was!” panted Leon, after he had tried in vain to get rid of some of his bonds. “I’ll bet you that I wouldn’t be here much longer. Now, what will be done with me if I am given up to the rebels? Beyond a doubt I’ll be hanged, for of course they will take revenge on my father through me. Well, if I go up there will be one less to fight them.”
Dan was gone longer than he was before, and when he came back Leon was surprised to hear him talking to somebody. Of course, it was so dark that he couldn’t see anything, but as his captor drew near he began to recognize Cale Newman’s voice. Leon was thunderstruck. He did not know where Cale had been confined, but by some inadvertence on the part of his jailers he had got away. Leon was impatient to hear Cale’s version of it.