“Yes, I am alone!” answered Ben. “Do you see anybody with me?”
Ann felt her heart swell with pride. She caught Jo’s hand and squeezed it and he answered with a like pressure.
“What are you doing here?” asked Ben in his turn. He took care to shout it as loudly as possible, knowing well that the men had tried to be quiet.
In reply Tom cuffed him sharply. “Be still, there.” The hard-muscled seaman could hold the boy at arm’s length and Ben kicked and struggled in vain. “What’ll we do with him?”
“Let him go home,” said Charlie.
“Go home and tell, and have a batch of farmers chasing down here to look for us? Not on your life.”
“What’s he got to tell? We aren’t doing any harm, two men sitting peacefully in the woods.”
“You don’t know how much he heard.” And again Tom shook Ben vindictively.
Ann had to clench her fingers; how she wished she had a gun! Those men could be frightened easily. Their conversation had told her how superstitious they were. Just one shot to scare them off and they would run like deer. But there wasn’t any gun. The house was so far away. How could she get word to her father?
“Tie him up and leave him here. We can stop his noise.”