“They’ll be some surprised to see us so soon again,” suggested Amos, as he started to get a foot in a shoe.
“Perhaps fairly stunned as well, if, as we believe, they’re guilty of such a foul trick against their kind,” added Jack.
“Do you think the old couple would show fight, and try to get us in a hole when they found that we were on to their game?” asked Amos.
“They didn’t strike me as fighters, either one of them,” he was told. “All the same it will pay us to keep our eyes fixed on them pretty much all the time.”
They managed to get their shoes and coats on. To facilitate progress, Jack lighted the fragment of tallow candle which had been left in their charge at the time they were conducted to the loft.
“I’m all ready,” announced Amos, finally. Somehow, he did not take quite as much pains to moderate his voice as before; perhaps he fancied that since they meant to drop down upon the old couple it might be as well to give them a little warning to the effect that their young guests were moving about.
So Jack bent over and lifting the trap opened the path to the lower part of the Belgian domicile. It was characteristic of Jack that he should with his other arm bar the way, so that Amos could not have preceded him even though he attempted to do the same.
As the two lads came down the steep stairs from the loft they found the man and woman staring at them. Their whole demeanor expressed alarm, yes, bordering on a panic. It was as though they had suddenly realized that those above must be aware of what was going on under that supposed to be friendly roof covering a Belgian family.
When the boys advanced toward them the man arose to his feet. He held on to the table as if for support, showing that in his fright his limbs threatened to give way under him.
Amos again felt that twinge of pity for the two. He shut his teeth firmly together in order to fight against any weakness. In that moment Amos felt doubly glad it was Jack rather than himself who would engineer matters, for he had much more confidence in his chum than he could ever feel in himself.