“You have made a mistake in making a prisoner of me,” he said. “I was running from the Indians, awhile before you stopped me, true, but anybody would run from a gang of Indians on the warpath.”
“Yas, thet’s so,” was the reply. “But I guess I’ll hold ye a while, ennyhow, till I fin’ out whether ye are tellin’ the truth or not.”
“How long will that be?” asked Dick, with a sinking of the heart, for he did not like the idea of being delayed from reaching General Greene with the news that the patriot settlers were needing his help.
“I don’ know. Ye’ll stay here till I tell ye ye may go, ennyhow, so ye might as well make up your mind to thet.”
“I don’t see any sense in such a proceeding on your part,” said Dick.
“Uv course ye don’,” with a grin. “I wouldn’t expect ye to. But I do, and here ye stay. In the mornin’ I’ll take a stroll an’ see if I can find out anythin’ about ye, an’ then we’ll see about lettin’ ye go.”
He put a bar across the door, and then, pointing to a bunk in one corner of the room said: “You can sleep there. I’ll lay on a blanket on the floor.”
Dick knew it would do no good to argue with the ruffian, so he got into the bunk, and lay down, after which Gurley blew out the light and lay down on a blanket, and was soon snoring.
Dick did not get to sleep. In fact, he began trying to get his hands free, for he was eager to make his escape and go on his way to carry the news to General Greene.
Gurley had tied his wrists so securely he could not get them free, however, and finally the youth gave up the attempt, and eventually slept.