“Try the pistols. There, take that of the man Wyvill. Are you sure they are loaded?”
“I know they are.”
“Well, try.”
Oliver took Wyvill’s pistol, and put in the ramrod.
“Make sure. Draw the loading. You don’t know what it is to have to do with Coppinger.”
Oliver drew the charge, and then, as is usual, when the powder has been removed, blew down the barrel. Then he observed that there was a choke somewhere. He took the pistol to the lantern, opened the side of the lantern and examined it. The touch-hole was plugged with wax.
“Humph!” said Mr. Menaida. “The man who drugged the liquor waxed the touch-holes of the pistols. Try the rest.”
Oliver did not now trouble himself to draw the charges; he cocked each man’s pistol and drew the trigger. Not one would discharge. All had been treated in like manner.
Oliver thought for a moment what was to be done. He dared not leave the sleeping men unprotected, and he and his father alone were insufficient to defend them.