“Let the raft be moored close to the shore, just in its present state,” said the officer; “the general may wish to see it. How could the lads have contrived to build such a machine?”
The commander of the boat explained that a wreck had occurred on the shore, and that they had evidently built it from the materials they found on board her, but anything further about them he could not say.
“Well, then, I’ll take them up at once to the general, and the interpreter attached to our division will draw from them all we want to know. Come, lads! you must follow me,” he said. “Sergeant, bring the prisoners along with you.”
On this Jack and Bill found themselves surrounded by the soldiers; and thinking it possible, should they not move fast enough, that their movements might be expedited by a prick from the bayonets, they marched briskly forward, keeping good pace with the men.
Chapter Fourteen.
Again shut up.
“I say, Bill, I wonder what the mounseers are going to do with us,” whispered Jack, as they marched along. “Will they put handcuffs on our wrists and throw us into a dungeon, do you think?”
Bill acknowledged that he feared such might be the fate prepared for them. They were not, however, ill-treated during their walk. Naturally they felt very much disappointed at being recaptured, but they tried as before to put as bold a face as they could on the matter, and talked away to each other in an apparently unconcerned manner.