Clarence seized the old negro by one arm, as he spoke, Godfrey at a sign from him took hold of the other, and together they led him across the field until they reached the road, down which they conducted him toward Godfrey’s cabin. But little was said during the walk. The negro, who was evidently becoming alarmed, would have talked fast enough, but when his captors allowed him to use his tongue, he pitched his voice in so high a key that Clarence, alarmed lest he should arouse somebody, sternly ordered him to hold his peace. The old negro changed his tactics now, and most solemnly declared that he didn’t know anything about any barrel; that his name was not Jordan; and that he had gone into the field simply for the purpose of stealing some potatoes for his breakfast. But Clarence only laughed at this, and assured him that he was not taking the right course to gain his liberty. Potatoes didn’t grow three feet under ground, he said, and neither did prowlers, as a general thing, dig them with a shovel. They could do better work with their hands. If he would go back there and show them where the barrel was hidden, they would dig for it, and the moment they found it they would give him something for pocket-money, and release him. This the old negro protested he could not do, and Clarence assured him that he should do it before he saw daylight again. Half an hour’s walk brought them within sight of the cabin, and there Godfrey left Clarence and the prisoner while he went forward to make sure that none of his family were stirring, and to secure a plough-line that hung up under the shed beside the corn-crib, that being the article with which he had decided to confine old Jordan. He returned in a few minutes, and once more taking hold of the negro’s arm, he and Clarence assisted him over two or three fences, through a thick brier-patch which covered the site of his former comfortable dwelling, and finally halted in front of the potato-hole. It was simply an out-door cellar, the peak of the roof rising to the height of one’s shoulder, and the eaves resting on the ground. The cellar was quite deep enough to permit a tall man to stand upright in it, as Clarence found when he descended the stairs that led into it. It had successfully resisted the ravages of time, and with the exception of the steps, which were in a very dilapidated state, was as sound as it was on the day it was built. The roof was four feet thick, and Godfrey assured his companion that the prisoner might shout for help as long and as loudly as he pleased, but he could not make himself heard as far as the cabin, unless he possessed lungs with as much power as a steam-whistle.