"He would do as he is told, of course," answered Tom. "But do you suppose they thought they could get that valise back by threatening you?"
"I don't know what they thought, for they acted as if they were crazy. They caught me in less than half an hour after I left you, and it was through my own fault. I ran on to them before I knew it, and do you imagine I thought 'robbers' once? As true as you live I didn't. I took them for poachers, and told them, very politely, that these grounds were posted and they couldn't be allowed to shoot there, when all on a sudden it popped into my head what I was doing. They saw the start I gave, and in a second more they had me covered. If I could have got away without letting them see that I suspected them, they wouldn't have said a word to me."
"Well, they covered you with their revolvers; then what?"
"Beyond a doubt, they made a prisoner of me before they thought what they were doing, and when they came to look at it they found that they had got an elephant on their hands. Then they would have been glad to get rid of me; but they did not see just how they could do it with safety to themselves, so they made up their minds to use me."
"At first they thought they would wait and see if anything would come of the notice they left on the door of the cabin, and then they thought they wouldn't—that they would hunt up another hiding-place as soon as possible; so they ordered me to take them where nobody would ever think of looking for them. And I could do nothing but obey."
"Were you acting as their guide when they released you?"
Bob replied that he was.
"Why didn't you veer around a bit, and lead them toward the railroad?"
"If I had I shouldn't be here now," answered Bob, significantly. "They warned me to be careful about that, and they were so well acquainted with the hills that I was afraid to attempt any tricks. We camped over on Dungeon Brook last night, and set out again at an early hour this morning, but before we had been in motion an hour, we found ourselves cut off from the upper end of the hills, and that was the time they made up their minds to let me go. They didn't say so, but still I had an idea that they didn't want me around for fear I would make too much noise to suit them."