“My old man declares there’s no harm in you-ins,” Mrs. Peck said, as she patted the boys on the shoulder in a motherly way and wished them good luck. “You’ll probably find your friends at the cove,” she said, “for our folks just returned from there, and the boys were waiting for you to show up. Only don’t say a word about having been brought here at all. It will be better for you not to.”
The boys agreed to this, and shot away at a double-quick pace toward the cove, anxious to meet their chums, and doubly anxious to be on the deck of the good old _Rambler_ again. They were hardly outside the clearing in the middle of which the old farm house stood when a party of a dozen men came dashing across the weed-grown field and approached the old woman now standing in the doorway.
“Where are those boys?” the man who seemed to be the leader of the party demanded. “Bring them out here, quick!”
As he spoke, several members of the party flourished long beechen whips which had evidently been cut from the forest very recently.
“What do you-uns want of the boys?” asked the old lady mildly. “We’ll explain that to them!” answered the leader, his face flushing with anger. “We don’t have to be cross-examined by you.”
“I sho’ hope those boys hain’t done no mischief,” the woman replied.
“They’re spies!” the leader shouted. “We’ve just found out that they’re spies! The word came down the river! Where are they?”
“I’m sure sorry,” Mrs. Peck answered, “but Ball done brought me word from my old man to turn the lads loose.”
“Which way did they go?” demanded the leader. Mrs. Peck hesitated. She knew what her fate would be should she attempt to deceive these lawless night-riders, and should be detected. Her idea was to protect the boys as far as lay in her power, yet she did not want to render herself and family liable to the wrath of the riders.
“Sho’, now,” she said after a moment’s silence, “them boys ducked out of the clearing somewhere west, and I was that stupid that I didn’t see whether they kept straight on west or not.”
“Oh, what’s the use of talking with a woman?” demanded one of the riders. “The boys undoubtedly returned to the river. We’ll find them there if we make haste.”
“And when we do find them,” the leader declared spitefully, “we’ll give them a bit of instruction according to Doctor Birch. We have desperate work on hand for the next week, and we can’t afford to have our plans frustrated by a few school-boys!”