He heard the door open, and then a fresh breeze told him that he was being carried out of the house.
“I wonder what in the world is going to happen to me now,” he thought to himself.
Again he made an effort to free his hands, but it was of no use with the little strength he had. His head was aching, and he was completely exhausted by the ordeal through which he had passed.
From the footsteps of the men who were carrying him he made out that they were passing next down a gravel walk. At the same time, nearby, he heard what he took to be the stamping of horses. “Perhaps it is the same place where they took me in before,” he thought. However, that did him no good, as he had been brought to the house in the darkness of a stormy night and had seen nothing of the neighborhood.
His surmise was correct, however, for the men raised him and placed him in a carriage. Two of them sprang in and the horses started rapidly down the road.
Then was repeated the same experience as before, the long ride over the roughest of roads. Roberts was completely helpless, and was flung this way and that upon the seat. Perhaps the jarring helped to revive his faculties, however, for when the trip was over he was fully alert.
During the ride the two men who were in the carriage whispered to each other occasionally; but the conversation was in French, as before, and the American could understand nothing. It was a weary journey, but it came to an end at last. The carriage stopped, the two men sprang out, and then again he felt himself lifted and carried away.
“I will pretty soon know what is going to happen to me,” he muttered to himself.
He was taken only a short distance before he was set down by the two men, who stepped aside and held a whispered conversation. Then suddenly he heard them walking away again, and a minute or two later he heard the carriage start. It sped rapidly away, and in a half-minute more was out of hearing, the American being left alone in absolute silence and without any further clue as to what was taking place or where he was.
He lay there for fully half an hour, waiting impatiently for the next development. He grew more and more impatient, and finally summoned all his strength in an effort to free his hands. “Perhaps it will do me no good,” he thought, “but I would like everlastingly to make a fight for it.”