Yet he spoke in a voice more cheerful than it was when they first met him.
"Don't be afraid," he added.

"No one has the slightest intention of injuring any of you in any way, I assure you." "We have not the same intention in regard to you, sir," replied Major Doyle, fuming with rage, for his "Irish was up," as he afterward admitted.

"Unless you at once remove that barricade and allow us to proceed we will not be responsible for what happens.

You are warned, sir!" Uncle John, by this time standing beside the Major upon the ground, had been quietly "sizing up the situation," as he would have expressed it.

He found they had been captured by a party of fourteen men, most of whom were young, although three or four, including Tobey, were of middle age.