“Ye’d better. We can stay here till yer grub gives out, an’ then ye’ll have to surrender, an’ ye might as well do et now.” “We have provisions to last us till--” Holden hesitated, but Gurley finished: “Till Gin’ral Greene an’ his army gits here, ye was goin’ to say, hey?” with a grin. “Well, they won’t git here as soon as ye think, I can tell ye that.” “Why won’t they?” asked Holden. “Because I captured ther young feller what ye sent frum here last night, to bring Greene, an’ I’ve got ’im a pris’ner, an’ so he won’t carry the news, as ye expected, an’ Greene an’ his army won’t be here--not for a good while, anyhow.” An exclamation escaped the lips of Tom Dare. “You big ruffian!” he cried. “You say you captured my brother?” The giant looked at Tom and grinned. “I don’ know whether I captured your brother or not, but I do know that I captured a young feller what was on his way to bring Gin’ral Greene here.” “That was my brother,” cried Tom, angrily. “Where is he, now?” “Oh, he’s where I can put my han’s on ’im whenever I want to,” was the reply. Tom jerked a pistol out of his belt and leveled it, and would have fired at the ruffian, had not Mr. Perkins caught him by the arm. “Don’ shoot, my boy,” he said. “Gurley’s a villain, and needs shootin’, but he’s there under a truce, and we must not shoot him.” “Oh, all right,” said Tom. “That’s so. I won’t shoot him now, but he made me forget myself when he said he had my brother a prisoner.” “An’ that’s another reason for not shooting him, Tom. If you only wounded him, he’d most likely take revenge on your brother.” “That’s so. I never thought of that. But I’ll get even with him for capturing Dick.” Gurley had watched this little episode with a slight show of alarm, at first, but when he saw that the youth was not going to fire, he grinned, and said: “Lucky ye didn’t shoot, youngster.” Then to Holden he went on: “What about it? Are ye goin’ to surrender?” “No,” was the decided reply. “Ye’ll have to sooner or later, ye know.” “No, you won’t,” said Tom, in a low, eager voice. “I’ll go out and away to-night, and will try to find and rescue Dick. But if I can’t find him, I’ll go and bring General Greene and his army.” Holden nodded to Tom, and then replied to Gurley: “We will not surrender, so you might as well go back to your friends, the redskins, and tell them so.” “Oh, all right,” growled Gurley. “But, ye’ll be sorry ye didn’t surrender, Holden.” “I don’t think so.” With an angry exclamation, the renegade turned and strode back and rejoined the Indians, to whom he talked energetically, gesticulating vigorously the while. Then the Indians shook their bows and tomahawks at the settlers and gave vent to a series of wild, thrilling war-whoops. CHAPTER VI In the Cabin