ps and jets along it till it empties into the Punch
Bowl, and just as Molly was cautiously putting her fore foot into the
water, out starts two men from the bushes and seized poor Molly's
bridle!"

"Good Heaven!" exclaimed Major Warfield.

"Well, master, before I could cry out, one of them willains seized me by
the scruff of my neck, and, with his other hand upon my mouth, he says:

"'Be silent, you old fool, or I'll blow your brains out!'

"And then, master, I saw for the first time that their faces were
covered over with black crape. I couldn't a-screamed if they'd let me!
for my breath was gone and my senses were going along with it from the
fear that was on me.

"'Don't struggle; come along quietly, and you shall not be hurt,' says
the man as had spoke before.

"Struggle! I couldn't a-struggled to a-saved my soul! I couldn't speak!
I couldn't breathe! I liked to have a-dropped right offen Molly's back.
One on 'em says, says he:

"'Give her some brandy!' And t'other takes out a flask and puts it to my
lips and says, says he:

"'Here, drink this.'

"Well, master, as he had me still by the scruff o' my neck I couldn't do
no other ways but open my mouth and drink it. And as soon as I took a
swallow my breath came back and my speech.

"'And oh, gentlemen,' says I, 'ef it's "your money or your life" you
mean, I hain't it about me! 'Deed, 'clare to the Lord-a-mighty, I
hain't! It's wrapped up in an old cotton glove in a hole in the
plastering in the chimney corner at home, and ef you'll spare my life
you can go there and get it,' says I.

"'You old blockhead!' says they, 'we want neither one nor t'other! Come
along quietly and you shall receive no harm. But at the first cry, or
attempt to escape--this shall stop you!" And with that the willain held
the mizzle of a pistil so nigh to my nose that I smelt brimstone, while
t'other one bound a silk hankercher round my eyes, and then took poor
Molly's bridle and led her along. I couldn't see, in course, and I
dassint breathe for fear o' the pistil. But I said my prayers to myself
all the time.

"Well, master, they led the mule on down the path until we comed to a
place wide enough to turn, when they turned us round and led us back
outen the wood, and then 'round and round, and up and down, and
crossways and lengthways, as ef they didn't want me to find where they
were taking me.

"Well, sir, when they'd walked about in this 'fused way, leadin' of the
mule about