“So ye’ve got him, have ye?” she exclaimed, gleefully. “This night’s work will make rich folks outen us. An’ ye was goin’ to run away from us, was ye—from me an’ Jack, who have allers treated ye like a son ever since ye’ve been with us? An’ ye’ve got $145 hid away from us, have ye? What business have ye got with so much money? Take him out to the smoke-house an’ lock him up thar. I’m too sleepy to wollop him to-night, but I’ll tend to him the fust thing in the mornin’.”
Julian had expected a terrible beating as soon as he was brought into the presence of Mrs. Bowles, and was much relieved to know that his punishment was to be postponed for a few hours. It was the first time he had ever known Jack’s wife to be too sleepy to use the rawhide.
“An he ain’t got no business with them new suit of clothes, nuther,” said Tom, who, while his brother was searching for a candle and the key to the smoke-house, was taking some of his own ragged wearing apparel down from the nails in one corner of the cabin. “He’s got to take ’em off an’ give ’em to me. Pap said so.”
“Ye shall have ’em, Tommy,” said his mother. “Ye’ve been a good boy an’ ye desarve ’em.”
“An’ I’m to have his rifle an’ $10 besides,” chimed in Jake, angling for a word of commendation.
“So ye are. Allers be good an’ ye’ll be sartin to prosper.”
When Jake had found the candle and key, and Tom had selected the garments he intended to give to Julian in exchange for his own, the two boys led their captive out of the cabin to the smoke-house.
The first business in order, after they had conducted Julian into his prison, was to rob him of his clothes. Jake untied his hands and stood close by his side, in order to seize him if he made any attempt to escape, while Tom picked up a heavy club and stationed himself in front of the door, ready to knock the prisoner down if he eluded his brother. But Julian, shivering violently with the cold and utterly incapable of any exertion, thought only of dry clothes and comfort and not of escape. He felt much more at his ease after he had relieved himself of his wet garments and put on those Tom had provided for him, and told himself that if his captors would bring him the blankets Jack had stolen from his camp on the bluff, he could obtain a night’s refreshing sleep in spite of the cold and his bonds. But he soon found that they did not intend to permit him to go to sleep at all; and during the next few minutes he gained some idea of what was in store for him.
As soon as the exchange had been made, and Julian had again been bound, Tom dropped his club, and catching up a long rope which he had brought with him from the house, mounted upon a box and made one end of it fast to a beam overhead. At the same time Jake pushed his prisoner under the beam, and seizing the other end of the rope tied it to his hands. Julian was now confined so that he could neither sit, lie nor walk about. He must remain upon his feet and stand in one place during the rest of the night.
“I don’t see any use in this,” said he, dismayed at the gloomy prospect before him. “I can’t escape from this house as long as my hands are tied.”