ndly office
for him.

"I desire to take you to witness," said the lady, "that, though flight
was in my power, I have not availed myself of the opportunity. Say
that to my oppressors, to increase the guilt of their cruelty."

"I will say what you please," Answered Bars, peevishly, "an' you will
untie me."

"I will do so, if you promise to make no hue and cry."

"What should I want of tramping after Indians in the dark, and perhaps
catch an arrow in my paunch for my pains?" groaned the jailer; "though
I have some notions of my own about the Indian part of the business."

"Trusting thy promise, I will relieve thee from thy bonds," said the
lady, cutting the cords.

"I made no promise," said Bars, as soon as he was set at liberty,
"though I will behave as if I had. These be brave Indians," he said to
himself, slyly taking up the gold, "and pay handsomely for their right
to be considered such. An' it be thy pleasure that it should be so,"
he added aloud, "these golden Indians shall remain Indians till the
day of judgment, for all Bars--"

Dame Bars, now, from her nook, made her appearance on the scene.

"O, Sam!" she exclaimed, "be they gone, and have not they scalped
you?"

"You can look for yourself, wife," answered Sam, passing his fingers
through his shock of hair, as if to satisfy any doubts of his own.
"But what should they want with my scalp, I wonder."

"I am sure I can't tell what they do with such things," said the dame,
"unless to cover their own heads when they get bald."

"A pretty figure," grunted Bars, "my red crop would make on the top of
one of them salvages. It never will come to that, goody. But I must
not stay here talking about scalps, when, perhaps, the poor sentinel
may have lost his." And he started toward the door.

"O do not go, do not go, Sam!" said his wife, throwing her arms around
him; "they may be watching for thee on the outside."

"Women be always cowards," said the jailer; "but thou need not hug me
so tight now. I warrant, having got what they wanted, they are in the
woods before this time."

"Yet stay a little longer," persisted his wife. "If the poor soldier
be murdered, thou canst do him no good."

"You forget, goody, that I am a public officer, and must do my duty,"
said Sam, extricating himself from her grasp; and, lighting a lantern,
he went out of doors.

Bars directed his course straight to the door of the prison, which he
found open.

"It is as I expected," he