"Never mind! Ven ve come to some conwenient place maybe something vill happen," he said consolingly to himself.
Then suddenly consternation met him, as it were face to face. The enigma was solved. From the crest of a knoll over which Lysander drove him like a lamb, he saw, lying on the ground in a little glen before them, the dark forms of some forty men.
One of these rose to his feet and advanced to meet Lysander. It was Silas Ropes.
"All ready?" said Sprowl.
"Ready and waiting," said Silas.
"Well, push on," said the captain. "We'll go to the dead bodies in the ravine first. Where's Pepperill?"
"Here," replied Ropes; and at a summons Dan appeared.
Carl's heart sank within him. Toby in the guard-house had told him about the dead bodies, and he knew that they were not far from the cave. He was aware, too, that Pepperill knew far more than one of such shallow mental resources and feeble will, wearing that uniform, and now in the power of these men, ought to know.
There in the little moonlit glen they met and exchanged glances—the sturdy, calm-faced boy, and the weak-kneed, trembling man. Pepperill had not recovered from the terror with which he had been inspired, when summoned to guide a reconnoitring party to the ravine. But he had not yet lisped a syllable of what he knew concerning the cave. Carl gave him a look, and turned his eyes away again indifferently. That look said, "Be wery careful, Dan, and leave a good deal to me." And Dan, man as he was, felt somehow encouraged and strengthened by the presence of this boy.
"Now, Pepperill," said Sprowl, "can you move ahead and make no mistake?"