"Wait a bit," said Wainwright. "You'll get your head in a minute."
I felt acutely conscious already that I had my head. It seemed a very large head that had suffered from an internal explosion.
"What is it?" I asked, gathering my scattered wits. "What has happened?"
"We've been licked," said Wainwright regretfully. "The rest of the boys got took, but we got in here. Fitz and me seen the nasty knock you got, and dragged you back, and when we got you here the parlor was full of the hounds, and Porter and Abrams and Brown was missing. We found you was cut, and we've tried to fix you up."
I looked at my bandaged arm, and put one more count in the indictment against Terrill. He had tried to stab me over the heart at the time he had wrenched free, but he had merely slashed my arm. It was not a severe wound, but it gave me pain.
I envied the philosophic calm with which he regarded it.
"It'll heal," I returned shortly. "Where is the other gang? Are they gone?"
"No; there's half a dozen of 'em out in the parlor, I reckon."
"You'd better tell him," said Fitzhugh, shifting an unpleasant task.
"Well," said Wainwright, "we heard orders given to shoot the first man that comes out before morning, but before all to kill you if you sticks your nose outside before sun-up."
The amiable intentions of the victors set me to thinking. If it was important to keep me here till morning, it must be important to me to get out. There was no duty to keep me here, for I need fear no attack on the boy who was with us. I looked at my watch, and found it was near one o'clock.
"Tie those blankets together," I ordered, as soon as I was able to get my feet.
The men obeyed me in silence, while Wainwright vainly tried to quiet the child. I was satisfied to have him cry, for the more noise he made the less our movements would be heard. I had a plan that I thought might be carried out.
While the others were at work, I cautiously raised the window and peered through the shutters. The rain was falling briskly, and the wind still blew a gale. I thought I distinguished the dark figure of a man on guard within a few feet of the building, and my heart sank.
"How many are in the parlor, Wilson?" I asked.
"Can't see anybody but that one-eyed fellow, Broderick, but there might be more."