“Go and find the shavings, Barney,” shouted Tom. “Hunt up the matches, Jake. Set the old thing a-going, and let’s have a bonfire. Hurrah for the Fourth of July! You’ll find us the pluckiest cubs you ever tried to smoke out.”
“I’ll see how much pluck you have got,” retorted Luke, “an’ if I don’t make you sick of your bargain afore you are many minutes older, I’m a Dutchman! I’ll bet you’ll be glad enough to come out o’ thar.”
Luke had no doubt imagined that we could be easily frightened into compliance with his wishes, and, as a sailor would say, he was “taken all aback” by our answer.
It was some time before he recovered himself; but rage got the better of his astonishment at last, and, without saying a word, he beckoned to his boys, and went into the house.
They were gone about ten minutes, and when they came out again, they carried their blankets and a few other articles of value under their arms, and the expression on their faces told us what they had done.
“The kindlin’ wood is found, an’ so be the matches,” said Luke Redman, with a fiendish grin. “The bonfire will be goin’ directly, ’cause them logs is dry, an’ will burn like tinder. Better come out o’ thar.”
Tom and I looked down at the cabin, and saw a thin wreath of smoke come curling out. It increased in volume every moment, and was finally followed by a sheet of flame. Then we heard a great roaring and crackling below us, and the planks in the door began to feel hot to the touch. The house was really on fire.
“You see that I am not foolin’ with you, I reckon,” said Luke. “You may know that I am bound to have that money, if I am willing to burn my house to get it. Do you guess you’ll have pluck enough to stand it?”
“Do you guess you have pluck enough to stand before the buckshot in these guns?” asked Tom. “We have seen enough of you, and you had better dig out. We’ll give you just a minute to clear the ground, and if there’s one of you in sight at the end of that time, he’ll get hurt. Hear me, don’t you?”
Tom cocked his gun as he said this, and rested the weapon on the window-sill, the muzzle pointed down at Luke Redman’s breast.