We had also another reason for keeping him a prisoner, to which, however, Mr Tidey did not allude in his presence. Without loss of time, we partly dragged and partly lifted him up to the canoe, into which we tumbled him without much ceremony.
“If you attempt to struggle, you’ll kick a hole in the canoe and go to the bottom, my friend; so I would advise you to keep quiet,” said the Dominie.
The man only answered with a volley of oaths, but no further information could we draw from him. We therefore left him to his own reflections, while we hastened back to Rose, whom we found seated by her prisoner.
“He stay berry quiet,” she said, “an’ me no tinkee he run ’way.”
“That may be, but we will secure him as we have done his companion,” said Mr Tidey, producing a piece of rope which he had brought with him from the canoe; and, dragging the Indian to a tree, we lashed him so securely to it, that we believed with all his cunning he could not set himself free.
“Now let us continue our search for the little girls and Dio,” said the Dominie; “depend upon it, they cannot be far off. Probably they are somewhere near the shores of the lake, and if we approach their captors cautiously, we may master them as we have the other man.”
I suggested that we should paddle round the shores of the lake in the canoe, and as they were probably expecting her arrival with two men in her, they would not suspect who we were until we got close up to them.
The Dominie, after a little consideration, agreed to my proposal.
“What are we to do with Rose?” he asked.
“She can lie down at the bottom of the canoe, and assist in keeping our prisoner quiet, unless she will consent to remain behind,” I observed.