“To-be-sure they did, and they were in a great hurry to get away from there; but they needed provisions, and by stopping to get them they fell into trouble. They took Joe Morgan’s house for a wood-chopper’s cabin, and while we were robbing them, they were foraging on Joe. I tell you, Tom, it’s a lucky thing for us that we got out of that gorge when we did. They were mad enough to shoot us on sight.” “I don’t wonder at it,” replied Tom. “It would make most anybody mad to lose a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in money and securities, no matter how he came by them. Where did they catch you? Did they treat you well?” “They treated me well enough,” was Bob’s reply; “but I believe that if they had not stood in fear of immediate capture, I should have a different story to tell, if, indeed, I were able to tell any. I told you nothing but the truth in the postscript I added to their note.” “I knew they made you write it, and that you did not express your honest sentiments when you told us to be in a hurry about giving back that valise.” “I was sure you would understand it: but what could a fellow do with a cocked revolver flourished before his eyes by a man who was in just the right humor to use it on him?” “He would do as he is told, of course,” answered Tom. “But do you suppose they thought they could get that valise back by threatening you?” “I don’t know what they thought, for they acted as if they were crazy. They caught me in less than half an hour after I left you, and it was through my own fault. I ran on to them before I knew it; and do you imagine I thought ‘robbers’ once? As true as you live, I didn’t. I took them for poachers, and told them, very politely, that these grounds were posted and they couldn’t be allowed to shoot there, when all on a sudden it popped into my head what I was doing. They saw the start I gave, and in a second more they had me covered. If I could have got away without letting them see that I suspected them, they wouldn’t have said a word to me.” “Well, they covered you with their revolvers; then what?” “Beyond a doubt, they made a prisoner of me before they thought what they were doing, and when they came to look at it, they found that they had got an elephant on their hands. Then they would have been glad to get rid of me; but they did not see just how they could do it with safety to themselves, so they made up their minds to use me. “At first they thought they would wait and see if anything would come of the notice they left on the door of the cabin, and then they thought they wouldn’t--that they would hunt up another hiding-place as soon as possible; so they ordered me to take them where nobody would ever think of looking for them. And I could do nothing but obey.” “Were you acting as their guide when they released you?” Bob replied that he was. “Why didn’t you veer around a bit, and lead them toward the railroad?”