'This is a point that I have no desire to discuss, you odious
robber. My word you have heard, and you hear again, that I care not
for your threats; that I defy you and declare you to be as cowardly
as you are bloody and bad.' He had faced the band, holding his pistol
in his hand; and he moved backward towards the pit. He then noticed
that Silent Poll was not among the rest; and he was unwilling to
trust himself to the mercies of this creature.

'I shall not descend till the girl joins the rest;' and he now stood
in such a manner as to have a view of the robbers and the old woman,
as well as of the tunnel's mouth.

The chief shouted, and Silent Poll came forth with an extremely
hang-dog expression. Then Roland descended, entered his room, and
closed the door. In a moment it was securely fastened upon the outside
with sturdy iron bars.

The robbers then set out through the wood for the road, by which the
unsuspecting negro must pass. The heavy clouds which had crept in
upon the sky at the set of sun now began to part, and, before the
miscreants had emerged from the bush, the deep dark of their path was
here and there parted by a shaft of silvery light. Through the tree
tops a glimpse of the sky could be occasionally obtained; and
although no leaf quivered in this sombre swamp the clouds raced
across the face of the moon, sometimes shutting up the heavens in
dark, again allowing the glory to stream forth and bathe the sky in
pure splendour.

'We had better be mounted,' the chief said. 'The negro is a good
horseman, and he will likely have one or two others with him. We have