"You said thar was only one," remarked one of them to the short-haired man.
"I only told you what Captain Leroy said," replied the leader.
"Well, you better had 'a' fetched Leroy along," commented the man, and I judged that he had small stomach for the work before him.
I realized that the time had come for me to speak up. "State your business," said I. "What do you want with me?"
"We want you to go with us," replied the short-haired man; "and we'll get our wants, too."
"Where am I to go?"
"You'll know when you get there," was the answer.
"By which road?" I asked. "I am very careful about the roads I travel."
"We'll look after the roads all right," he replied. "Will you go peaceable or not?"
"Just for the looks of the thing," I replied, "I'd rather have it said that I surrendered only after a struggle." Glancing at the three men the ruffian had brought with him, I was confirmed in my impression that the affair was by no means to their taste. If they had made a rush all together it would have been the easiest matter in the world to overpower me, but somehow they hung back.