‘D—n,’ cried one of his captors, impatiently, ‘let’s be moving. We’ve got a long road, and a heavy night’s work before us yet.’ ‘By —, you’re right, old hoss,’ said one of them, ‘there’s been fooling enough already.’ So saying, he seized Monteagle by the collar with no gentle grasp. The latter seeing that resistance would only lead to his being dragged along by main force, if not to his instant death, told them to unbind him, and he would walk peaceably along with them. ‘That’s right, youngster, you’ll save us the price of a couple of bullets, and the trouble of reloading,’ said the fellow with the revolver. After proceeding alongside the beach for some hundred yards, they clambered up the almost perpendicular face of the cliff, by the assistance of the dwarf trees and jutting rocks. Monteagle being aided by two of the men, who each held one of his arms. Before gaining the summit of the cliff, one of the party gave a low, peculiar whistle, somewhat like the cry of a curlew. It was immediately responded to and they set out in the direction from whence proceeded what was evidently the pre-concerted signal. ‘All right, Jimmy,’ said one of Monteagle’s captors. ‘The divil a bit of noise I hear, I heard only the barking of them cursed lane wolfs that the uncivilized graysers call key-oats. And the d—d half starved things made me feel a bit afeard, for they sounded like a dog howling, and you know when a dog howls it’s sure some one that hears him is soon going under the sod.’ ‘Shut up your Murphy-trap, Jim, or just open it, and take a swallow of this: I got it at the Sazerac as I passed, thinking you might need a little Dutch courage, and that brandy would put pluck into even John Chinaman’s chicken heart.’ ‘Come, come, let’s mount and be off.’ This order was given by a voice which Monteagle recognized as that of the man who placed the pistol at his head, and who appeared to be the leader of the gang. Monteagle was placed upon a horse, and with a mounted man on each side of him, one of whom held the lariat of his steed. The word was given to proceed, and they all started at a brisk trot. ‘What way?’ said Jimmy. ‘Right straight for the hut!’ was the response. Monteagle and his assailants had just disappeared in a deep hollow, when a man suddenly emerged from the thick shrubbery that enclosed the spot from which the party had departed. He was a short, powerfully built man. Even in the moonlight one could see that there were more white than black hairs in the abundant locks that fell upon his variously colored blanket; but his eye-brows were coal-black, and bent over eyes as bright and keen as the point of a dagger.