a mile, I knew we was in the woods again--the very same woods
and the very same path--I, knowed by the feel of the place and the sound
of the bushes as we hit up against them each side, and also by the
rumbling of the Spout as it rumbled along toward the Punch Bowl. We went
down and down and down, and lower and lower and lower until we got right
down in the bottom of that hollow.

"Then we stopped. A gate was opened. I put up my hand to raise the
hankerchief and see where I was; but just at that minute I felt the
mizzle o' the pistol like a ring of ice right agin my temple, and the
willain growling into my ear:

"'If you do----!'

"But I didn't--I dropped my hand down as if I had been shot, and afore I
had seen anything, either. So we went through the gate and up a gravelly
walk--I knew it by the crackling of the gravel under Molly's feet--and
stopped at a horse-block, where one o' them willains lifted me off. I
put up my hand agin.

"'Do if you dare!' says t'other one, with the mizzle o' the pistol at my
head.

"I dropped my hand like lead. So they led me on a little way, and then
up some steps. I counted them to myself as I went along. They were six.
You see, master, I took all this pains to know the house agin. Then they
opened a door that opened in the middle. Then they went along a passage
and up more stairs--there was ten and a turn, and then ten more. Then
along another passage, and up another flight of stairs just like the
first. Then along another passage and up a third flight of stairs. They
was alike.

"Well, sir, here we was at the top o' the house. One o' them willains
opened a door on the left side, and t'other said:

"'There--go in and do your duty!' and pushed me through the door and
shut and locked it on me. Good gracious, sir, how scared I was! I
slipped off the silk handkercher, and, 'feared as I was, I didn't forget
to put it in my bosom.

"Then I looked about me. Right afore me on the hearth was a little weeny
taper burning, that showed I was in a great big garret with sloping
walls. At one end two deep dormer windows and a black walnut bureau
standing between them. At t'other end a great tester bedstead with dark
curtains. There was a dark carpet on the floor. And with all there were
so many dark objects and so many shadows, and the little taper burned so
dimly that I could hardly tell t'other from which, or keep from breaking
my nose against things as I groped about.

"And what was I