“Out with it, boys; tell me all you know at once!”
Thereupon Georgie shouted, glibly:
“We went about five miles in the cave with our candles, an’ then we found”—
She held up a remonstrating hand, saying:
“Not five miles, oh, no; I have often heard that the underground road isn’t more than a mile.”
“Well, a mile, then,” continued George, unabashed, “an’ then we thought we heard an nawful grunt, an’ we all jumped so that our candles most went out, an’ the skin creeped on our bones, ’cause we thought it might be an Indian ghost, you see, an’ we might get tommy-hawked, an’ our mammas wouldn’t never know where we was, ’cause we sneaked away,” he broke down, with a stifled whimper, and nudged the next boy to go on.
Alex took up the story, adding:
“The little boys was scared, but we wasn’t, an’ we marched right on, an’ d’reckly we come on a dead man—not Indian bones, no, but a white man with his head all bloody, an’—an’—then we thought we better come back for you, ’cause you know him.”
With a groan she cried:
“You don’t mean my boarder—Mr. Chester!”