What had induced Tom Mason to become connected with this band of outlaws? How did it come that Pete and his half-breed companions were associated with them? Where was Luke Redman taking me? and would he really drown me in the bayou if he were not left in quiet possession of the eight thousand dollars?
Such questions as these, I say, occupied my mind during the journey down the bayou; but I could not find a satisfactory answer to a single one of them.
About noon my reflections were interrupted by the sudden stopping of the canoe, and a movement among my captors which told me that our voyage was ended.
I was lifted out and placed upon the bank, my feet were unbound, and, supported by Luke Redman on one side and Barney on the other, I was led along what appeared to be a bridle-path running through the woods.
In about ten minutes we reached a house; a door was pushed open, and I was conducted across a floor and up a flight of creaking stairs, at the top of which my captors stopped long enough to unlock a second door, which led into a room that I soon found was to serve as my prison.
“Here you are!” said Luke Redman, pulling out his knife and cutting the ropes with which my hands were confined; “an’ here you’ll stay till I get ready to leave the country. Don’t go to raisin’ any fuss, now; ’cause if you do, I’ll send my boys up here with their rawhides.”
The door closed as the outlaw’s voice ceased, and a key grated harshly in the lock. I listened a moment to the retreating footsteps, and then tore the handkerchief from my eyes.
I might as well have kept them covered, however, for they were not of the slightest use in the intense darkness which filled my prison. I could not see my hand before me; and not daring to move about the apartments for fear of running against something, I seated myself on the floor, to think over my situation and wonder what was going to happen next.
Just then I heard a slight grating noise, close at my elbow, such as might have been made by pushing a heavy board across the floor.
This continued for a few seconds, and then little rays of light began to stream into the room from an opening which suddenly appeared in the wall.