"I vas thinking the fire vill be apt to scorch us as much as it vill them. And I have my hands tied so I can't run."
"Don't be afraid; we'll look out for you. I swear, boys! the fire looks as though 'twas dying down! Get out o' this yer holler and there ain't no leaves to feed it; and I be hanged if the wind ain't gitting contrary!"
Carl witnessed these effects with a gleam of hope. The soldiers fell to gathering bark and sticks, which they piled at the roots of trees. The lad was left almost alone. Had his hands been free, he would have run. A soldier passed near him, dragging a dead bush.
"Dan Pepperill! cut the cord!" Dan shook his head, with a look of terror. "Drop your knife, then!"
"O Lord!" said Dan. "They'd hang me! I be durned if they wouldn't!"
"Dan, you must! I don't care vun cent for myself. But Wirginie Willars—she is just beyond vere you took me. Vill you leave her to die? And Mishter Hapgoot is just a little vay up the mountain, and there is nopody to let him know!"
A look of ghastly intelligence came into Dan's face as he stopped to listen to this explanation. He seemed half inclined to set the boy's limbs free, and risk the consequences. But just then Ropes shouted at him,—
"What ye at thar, Pepperill? Why don't ye bring along that ar brush?"
So the brief conference ended, and the cords remained uncut. And a great, dangerous fire was kindling in the woods. And now Carl's only hope for Virginia was, that she would take advantage of its light to make good her retreat from the mountain.