"Ye might tell us now!" they begged, in coaxing tones; and Yaspard answered, "I just believe Mr. Neeven is a wizard, and Tammy a sort of trow. Anyway, they are as bad as Vikings, for they have captured a poor lady and shut her up in the haunted room, with her baby too—all just the way people did ages ago! And now, don't you see, we've got to rescue them; we are the noble warriors who defend the weak and rescue them from thraldom!"
"Has he gone stark mad?" Gibbie asked of Lowrie.
"Not he," retorted Yaspard. "He is telling you the exact truth—believe it or not, as you please. I saw the mother, and I saw the baby; and I saw the back—I am glad he wasn't looking my way—of their tyrant and jailer, Mr. Neeven. So there!"
"A mother and baby in the haunted room! But how did they get there, can anybody imagine?"
"They are there, and that is enough for us."
"It's the strangest thing I ever heard tell o'," ejaculated Lowrie; "and yet," he added, "we must allow we did hear something uncommonly like a bairn greetin'."
"Of course we did," retorted Yaspard.
"But what kind of a critter was it came to the window?" Gibbie asked. "That was surely no human critter."
"The prettiest lady in creation would cast an ugly shadow from that hole," was the ready reply, which satisfied the brothers, who believed that their imaginations, and the dread they were in, as well as the uncertain light, had caused them to fancy they saw something peculiar. They were then quite ready to denounce Mr. Neeven for his inhuman conduct, and eager to devise some plan by which the poor prisoners might be rescued.
Yaspard had no difficulty in winning their approval of his next plan; and indeed, so ardently did they desire to set about it, that they were almost sorry when he said, "Easy, easy, boys! One thing at a time! Don't let us forget, in our haste to be after this business, that we have other important matters on hand. We have to find Gloy, and we have to meet the lads of Lunda at Havnholme this afternoon. We haven't much time on our hands, if Gloy has to be found before we go to receive his ransom."