"We have a right to know where you are taking us!" fiercely exclaimed Tom. "If you don't tell us you'll have a fight right here and now!"
He was prepared to try a sudden pull away from the men that held him, knowing it would be but a desperate chance, though willing to take it. But the man on his right warned him:
"Don't try any rough stuff, buddy. We'll treat you decent as far as we can, but we got orders to bring you in and we're going to do it. If you come along peaceable you won't be hurt."
"Then tell me where we are being taken!" demanded Tom.
"To the castle, if that means anything to you," replied the man who had warned against violence.
They were soon led out of the gully and found themselves on a road, bordered on each side with trees and bushes. It was evidently the main highway leading up Dismal Mountain—the same road on which they had been traveling in the House on Wheels. But what part of it they were on, they did not know.
"It ought to be somewhere around here," muttered one of the men, looking up and down the road.
"There it is—down by the bend," said another.
Tom and Ned had a glimpse of a dark shape looming over the tops of bushes and, for a moment, hoped it was their own car they had been forced to flee from. But when they got up to it they saw it was an ordinary auto.
"Get in!" ordered one of the men, and Tom and his chum, feeling this was no time to fight, did as they were told. The auto, a big touring car, held the two prisoners and two guards in the tonneau. The other two guards mounted to the front seat and they were soon traveling on in the darkness. The storm was now almost over, though the trees and bushes still dripped water. What the hour was the two prisoners could only guess, but it must have been long past midnight.