Lowering his voice, he described the scene to Ezra.
“Why,” said the latter, “there is something familiar about that.”
“Just what I thought,” agreed Ben. “The warning reminds me a great deal of what you have just told me of your acquaintance Jason Collyer.”
“I wonder,” said Ezra, “could it, by any chance, be he?”
“If it is, he has followed you,” replied Ben.
As Ezra was opposite his friend, his back was to the newcomers; but some little distance away there was a broad framed mirror, and by sitting in a certain way he discovered that he could get a very good view of them, indeed.
There were four in the party and all were attired in the soiled dress of farm laborers. However, three of them bore themselves in a swaggering manner much out of keeping with their apparent station. And all of them wore pistols belted at their waists. The fourth man, and much the smaller, sat in a shadow and for a time Ezra could not make him out. However, he finally turned his head to reply to a remark of one of his companions and his countenance was fairly reflected in the glass. There was no mistaking the furtive eyes and ferret features. It was Jason Collyer.
When the lad made this discovery known to Ben, the latter became greatly excited.
“He’s followed you. You thought he suspected you all along, and you were right.”
“And who, I wonder, are these others that he has brought with him?” said Ezra, regarding the reflections in the glass with much interest. “They look like tall, active fellows, and of a stamp that would not hesitate at a trifle like a man’s life.”
“Would they dare, do you think, attack us here?”
“Why not? Jason Collyer has learned that I did not ride in the direction of Charlestown. He probably suspected my presence among the trees opposite Abdallah’s house when they came out and then made a quiet investigation later. That is why no one answered the second cry of the mastiffs. When he learned positively that I was not what I seemed, he gathered this small, but very competent-looking force and made after me. In his eyes I am a dangerous person; and in days like these, dangerous persons are not treated very gently, as you know.”
“True enough,” replied Ben, his round face seeming to grow rounder as he examined the strangers. “But, still, there is so much danger of a hue and cry being started in a place like this.”