g now; and, thank Heaven, safe."

"Well, sir, they're all mortal enemies, but I'm so glad to hear it that
I say _Amen_ with all my heart; but is it true?"

"Oh, yes, I am sure; it's true enough!" cried Fred, with his eyes full
of the joy he felt. "Samson, I don't know how to contain myself--how to
be thankful enough! Poor old Scar! I should never have felt happy
again."

Samson's iron pot-like cap was tilted off again, and he scratched his
head on the other side as he looked at Fred with a quaint smile upon his
countenance.

"Well, sir, all this here puzzles me. It do--it do really. These here
are our enemies, and we've been taught to smite 'em hip and thigh; and
because we find they're living, instead of dead, here's you ready to
jump out of your skin, and me feeling as if I could shake hands with old
Nat. Of course I wouldn't; you see, I couldn't do it. Indeed, if he
was here I should hit him, but I feel as if I should shake hands all the
same."

"What will be best to do, Samson?"

"Do, sir? If you're right, get off as soon as we can."

"And them wanting our help."

"Tchah! They don't want our help. They want us to be out of their way.
If they come and catch us here, sir, how do we know but what they may
turn savage, and try to serve us out?"

"Samson, you are talking nonsense," said Fred, angrily; and he ran to
the hole again and called aloud the names of those he believed to be in
hiding, his words echoing and whispering along the dark passage, till
Samson made him jump by touching him on the shoulder just as he was
listening vainly for a reply.

"Don't do that, sir."

"Why not?"

"If that there passage goes right up to the Hall, the men yonder by the
ruins on dooty will hear you hollering and find out all about it."

Fred started away as if he had been stung.

"You are right, Samson," he said; "I did not think of that."

"You didn't, sir?"

"No."

"Then that shows you that I am not so stoopid as you tell me I am
sometimes."

"Oh, but I don't always mean it."

"Then you shouldn't say it, sir. Well, hadn't we better get back now?"

"But I want to make perfectly sure that they are hiding there, Samson,
my good fellow; and how can we find out without waiting and watching?"

"Oh, I can soon do that for you, sir."

"How?"

"Set a trap."

"What?"

"Set a trap, and bait it same as you would for a fox, or a polecat, or
one of them big hawks we see on the moor."

"I don't under