"There's no use fightin' about it now; for we've got to get a move on us in short order. It won't do to let this boy have a chance to give the alarm."
"Of course not. Lash him up somewhere so he can't make a noise, an' his chums will come before he starves to death."
"Don't do that!" Sam cried, in an agony of terror. "I won't say a word about your catchin' me here, an' I'll do anything you say."
"Oh, you're a nice plum to make promises, ain't you. It didn't take much persuadin' to make you go back on your friends, an' that's enough to show whether you can be trusted. Get the rope out of the boat, Phil, an' then we'll make ready for a long jump."
Phil obeyed, grumbling as he went because his partner had refused to take his advice, thus plunging both of them into danger, and Long Jim turned his attention to the prisoner once more.
"Before we leave this part of the country for good I'm goin' to give you somethin' to remember us by so's you won't go 'round stickin' your nose into other people's business agin."
"What are you goin' to do?" Sam asked, his face growing even paler than before.
"Give you the worst floggin' a boy ever had. I'd do it now if there wasn't so much work to be got through."
Sam had sufficient sense to know that all his pleadings for mercy would be in vain, and he held his peace until Phil returned with a long coil of rope which had been used as a boat's painter.
One of the beams at the end of the barn served as a post to which to lash the prisoner, and here the amateur detective was made fast in such a skillful manner that he could not so much as move his arms.