nine miles on the turnpike
road from Tip Top that the horsemen overtook and surrounded Wool, who,
seeing himself hopelessly environed, fell down upon the ground and
rolled and kicked, swearing that he would not be taken alive to have
his eyelids cut off!

It was not until after a desperate resistance that he was finally
taken, bound, put in a wagon and carried back to the village, where he
was recognized as Major Warfield's man and a messenger was despatched
for his master.

And not until he had been repeatedly assured that no harm should befall
him did Wool gain composure enough to say, amid tears of cruel grief
and fear:

"Oh, marsers! my young missus, Miss Black, done been captured and
bewitched and turned into somebody else, right afore my own two looking
eyes and gone off in dat coach! 'deed she is! and ole marse kill
me!'deed he will, gemmen! He went and ordered me not to take my eyes
offen her, and no more I didn't! But what good that do, when she turned
to somebody else, and went off right afore my two looking eyes? But ole
marse won't listen to reason. He kill me, I know he will!" whimpered
Wool, refusing to be comforted.

CHAPTER X.

CAP IN CAPTIVITY.

I lingered here and rescue planned
For Clara and for me.

--SCOTT.

Meanwhile how fared it with Capitola in the Hidden House?

"I am in for it now!" said Cap, as she closed the door behind Clara; "I
am in for it now! This is a jolly imprudent adventure! What will Wool
do when he discovers that he has 'lost sight' of me? What will uncle
say when he finds out what I've done? Whe-ew! Uncle will explode! I
wonder if the walls at Hurricane Hall will be strong enough to stand
it! Wool will go mad! I doubt if he will ever do a bit more good in
this world!"

"But above all, I wonder what the Le Noirs, father and son, will say
when they find that the heiress is flown and a 'beggar,' as uncle
flatters me by calling me, will be here in her place! Whe-ew-ew-ew!
There will be a tornado! Cap, child, they'll murder you! That's just
what they'll do! They'll kill and eat you, Cap, without any salt! or
they may lock you up in the haunted room to live with the ghost, Cap,
and that would be worse!"

"Hush! here comes Dorcas Knight! Now I must make believe I'm Clara, and
do the sentimental up brown!" concluded Capitola, as she seated herself
near the door where she could be heard, and began to sob softly.

Dorcas rap