“If it is my money or watch you want, you are welcome to them, only do not detain me, for my friends are anxiously waiting for me,” said Robert, thinking he could bribe the man.
“Not quite so fast, my young lark; I care nothing for your purse or baubles, but you are not to see your friends at present.”
“Why, I demand to know?”
“Why? Oh, because one of your very particular friends forbids it,” replied Hans, again laughing disagreeably.
“Take that, then, for your insolence, you rascal,” shouted Robert, suddenly dealing the man a heavy blow upon the temple.
He fell to the floor with a groan, then quick as lightning Robert turned to unfasten the door to escape.
Before he could draw the bolt, his arms were pinioned from behind, while at the same moment a heavy cloak was thrown over his head, completely blinding him and smothering his cries.
It was done so quietly and quickly that he was amazed, for he had supposed there were no others in the house, though now he heard several voices; but all spoke in low tones.
He was borne through the house, then down some steps. And now he heard some one stamp three times upon the ground. Immediately there was a grating sound, as if a heavy door was swinging upon its hinges. He was then borne within what seemed to be an underground passage, for he felt the air cool and damp, even through the fold of the heavy cloak, and he shuddered, for he was now convinced that he was in the hands of the smugglers, though for what purpose he could not conceive. He did not know that he had an enemy in all Germany, and the words of the rough brute who met him at the door were a mystery to him.
After proceeding through the several passages, and what appeared to be secret doors, he was at length set down, and the cloak removed from his head.