where are we going?"

"Not so loud, ma'am," said he. "We are going to High Dudgeon."

"High Dudgeon! What's that?"

"S-sh! When we're disappointed, or disgusted, or vexed, we always go to
our home in High Dudgeon."

"Is that where you live?"

"Part of the time, ma'am. Mostly we are away at sea or on the Island;
but when anything goes wrong, and we're angry about it, we always go
home and stay there, in High Dudgeon. Yes, ma'am."

"And what are they going to do with us when they get us there?"

"S-sh! You'll be in great danger there. If you can find any way to
escape from there, I advise you--S-sh! Not another word. Captain Lingo
is looking this way. I must go."

Aunt Amanda did not sleep very well that night.

In the morning, after a breakfast of fried bacon, prepared by Mr.
Leatherbread, the company resumed its march.

At noon, a halt was made beside a spring for rest and food, and here Mr.
Leatherbread prepared a luncheon of fried bacon.

In the evening, as the travellers were plodding onward, Ketch walked for
a time at the head of Aunt Amanda's mule. Aunt Amanda leaned forward and
said to him:

"Ketch, are we going to have more bacon tonight?"

"No, ma'am," said he, in a low voice. "We'll have supper in High
Dudgeon. My old mother's the cook there. You heard me mention her
yesterday morning. I've an idea there'll be pigeon pies for supper. And
mark what I'm saying to you, ma'am." His voice sank to a whisper. "If
you get a pigeon pie for supper, look careful to see what's inside of it
before you eat it."

"Mercy on us!" said Aunt Amanda. "Are they going to poison us?"

But Ketch slipped away in the gathering darkness, and said no more.

They had gone but a few hundred yards further, when, at the moment when
the darkness of night was making ready to blot out everything, they
suddenly emerged into a round grassy clearing enclosed by the forest,
where the light was better, and over which a star or two could be seen
glimmering in a pale blue sky. In the midst of this clearing rose a
tower.

It was a round tower, built of stone; its top came scarcely to the top
of the surrounding trees, and it was in fact not more than two stories
high; it appeared, with its wide girth, low and squat. Its sides were
pierced here and there with deep and narrow slits, for windows, and on
one side was a heavy oaken door, with great iron hinges and an iron
lock. Through two or three of the upper slits in the wall glimmered