The Young Bank Messenger Part 16

"I know one way already."

"You mean by delivering me up?"

"Yes."

"That would not suit me. Let me go, and I will give you a thousand dollars."

"Have you got it with you?"

"No, but I can arrange to give it to you within a week. You see,"

added the outlaw dryly, "I have been prosperous in my business, and can snare that sum in return for the favor you are going to do me in giving me my liberty."

"I am afraid, friend Fox, that my chance of securing the money in that way would be very slender."

"I am a man of my word. What I promise, that I will do."

"If you have so much money, why did you want to take the five hundred dollars of my friend here?"

"It was all in the way of business. Well, what do you say?"

"That I won't trust you. If I should take your thousand dollars for releasing you I should be as bad as you are."

"Very well; drive on, then," said the outlaw sullenly.

In less than an hour Ezekiel Mason's home was reached. When they drove into the yard it made quite a sensation. Mrs. Mason and the hired man stood staring at them with mouths agape.

"Who have you got there, Ezekiel?" asked his wife.

"One of the Fox brothers!" answered the farmer in an important tone.

"Me and my friend here took him."

Luke smiled, and so did the prisoner, uncomfortable though he was.

"It would have taken a dozen like that fool to have captured me," he said in a low voice, but only Luke heard him.

CHAPTER XI.

UNDER WATCH AND WARD.

The farm-house was built after the model of many similar houses in New England. It was of two stories, with the front door in the centre and a room on each side. Over the two stories was an unfurnished attic.

"Have you a secure place to keep our friend here?" asked Luke.

The farmer paused before he answered.

"I might put him in the attic," he said.

But here his wife interfered.

"I couldn't sleep if he were in the house," she said.

"Why not?" asked Luke. "You see he is securely bound, and will be as helpless as a child. Will you show me the attic?"

"Follow me," said the farmer.

They went up two flights of stairs, and found themselves in a long room, the whole width of the house. Through the centre rose the chimney. The sloping roof was not plastered. The only furniture consisted of a cot-bedstead and a chair.

"Is the attic occupied by any of the family?" asked Luke.

"Not generally. When I hire an extra hand at harvest-time he sleeps there."

"But at present there is no one occupying it?"

"No."

"Then I suggest that the bed will prove a good resting-place for our friend below. I have no doubt he has often found himself in lodgings less comfortable."

"But," said Mrs. Mason, nervously, "if he should get free during the night he might murder us all in our beds."

"There is little chance of that. When your husband bound him, he did a good job. I wouldn't undertake to get free myself, if I were bound as securely."

"That's so!" said the farmer, pleased with the compliment. "He can't get away nohow."

Over in the corner there were a couple of horse-blankets, which seemed to offer a comfortable resting-place. Luke Robbins eyed them thoughtfully.

"I have an idea," he said. "Let the outlaw lie there, and one of us can occupy the bed. Then he won't be able to try any of his tricks."

"I would rather not sleep there," observed the farmer nervously. "I couldn't sleep in the same room with one of the Fox brothers."

"Then if you couldn't sleep there you are just the man we want. You will always be on the watch, and can frustrate any attempt to escape."

"No, no," said Ezekiel Mason, hurriedly. "Kate could not close her eyes if she thought I were alone with John Fox."

"No," answered Mrs. Mason, with a shudder, "I won't let Ezekiel sleep in the same room with that bold, bad man."

"I wouldn't be afraid myself," said the farmer, trying to keep up his reputation for courage, "but I don't want my wife to be anxious."

Luke Robbins smiled, for he understood very well the timidity of his host. "Then," he said, "as I have no wife to be anxious about me, perhaps I had better sleep here."

"Yes, that will be much better," rejoined the relieved farmer. "You are a brave man. Mr. Fox won't get the better of you."

"Not if I can help it," said Luke. "Will that suit you, Mrs. Mason?"

"Why don't you take him on to the jail at once?" asked the woman. "I shall feel worried if he spends the night in this house."

"I hear that he has escaped from jail no less than three times. If he should do so to-night he would at once come here, and perhaps bring some of his band with him. He knows there is a good sum of money in the house."