Richard thought they would any way, as soon as he could obtain the use of his arms. He felt so well qualified to take care of himself that he would have been willing to give his bond not to halloo, or call any one to his assistance, though he could not help wondering that the sentinels whose beats were next to his own, did not arrive at the scene of operations. It was evident to him that they were asleep on their posts, or that they were accomplices of the conspirators.
"Now, get up," said the speaker, who used the disguised voice.
Richard promptly obeyed this order, and though several of the boys held on to him as he rose, a terrible struggle ensued, in which the captured sentinel almost made good his mental boast; but they were too many for him, and his hands were tied behind him with a knapsack strap, in spite of his best exertions to shake them off.
"I told you he would be a hard customer," said one, who had not before spoken.
"Shut up, you ninny! You'll blow the whole of us. No fellow is to speak but—you know whom," said he with the assumed voice.
Richard tried to obtain, in the thick darkness that shrouded them, some clew which would enable him to identify the ruffians; but he could not make out any thing peculiar in their form or motions to guide him, and he was equally at fault in regard to the voices. He stood quiet when he found that resistance was useless; but he determined to keep a sharp lookout for an opportunity to release himself from his mortifying situation.
"Now, you——"
"My name is Dobbin," added the false voice.
Richard did not remember any such name, though he had heard the roll called in all the companies, and he concluded that it was a "blind," to deceive him.
"Now, Dobbin, take him off, and we will settle the case in the woods."