“You’re fooling me, boys,” said I, in dismay, an icy coldness striking around my heart.
“Not much, you son of a gun!” cried Red. “It’s you who are trying to fool us. Hey fellers! Here we are! Let’s initiate Detective Kean!”
Can you fancy my feelings at that moment?
If you can’t try and fancy them at the next, when I suddenly found myself surrounded by twenty or thirty of the toughest-looking specimens I ever laid my eyes on.
We had reached the grove now, and a man seemed to spring from behind every tree.
I saw that my midnight mission was already accomplished.
Make no mistake—I had joined the gang!
It was no use to attempt to defend myself.
They were around me like a pack of wolves in an instant, a dozen hands held me, a dozen more were going through my clothes, possessing themselves of revolvers, knives, money—everything, even to my official shield, which, like a fool, I had loose in my trousers’ pocket.