“Inman declares he will burn down the house if you refuse his terms.”

“Let him try it as soon as he pleases; you can tell him for Capt.  Asbury that his terms are rejected.”

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE UNDERGROUND MISSIVE.

Dick Hawkridge, standing on the ground, looked up in the bronzed face of Duke Vesey, sitting in the saddle.

At every window on the lower floor were faces watching the two men that had thus met under a flag of truce.  From the ridge on the right, and the undulating ground to the left, peered the rustlers, intensely interested in the actions of the couple, whose words were spoken in tones too low to reach the ears of any on either side.  No actors ever had a more attentive audience than they.

When Hawkridge announced to Vesey that his proffer was rejected (for it was useless to report first to Capt.  Asbury, as he had been told to do), the horseman said: 

“Dick, you would have been a cur to accept such terms, though I would do anything to even matters with that Asbury; but I want to get a message to Mont Sterry.”

“You can trust me to carry it.”

“It is for him alone; I have it in writing.  Well, good-by.”

He leaned over from the saddle and extended his hand.  As Hawkridge took it he felt something in his palm.

“I understand,” he said; “it shall be delivered.”

No one watching the couple, as nearly all were doing, suspected this little by-play.  They saluted, and Vesey spurred his pony to a gallop, passing up the ridge and joining his friends to report, while Hawkridge was admitted through the door, which was immediately closed and secured behind him.

To the captain and the others who crowded around he quickly told what had passed.

“Your order was to let you know the terms before giving an answer,” he added, addressing the leader, “but you see it wasn’t necessary.”

A buzz of commendation left no doubt of the wisdom of his course.

“But what about his threat to burn the building?” asked Sterry, addressing no one in particular.

“He will do it, or at least will try it,” replied Hawkridge, “for he doesn’t intend any one shall have time to interfere, as may be the case if he delays too long.”

“To set fire to the house,” remarked the captain, who had given much thought to the question, “they must first reach it, and that manoeuvre will prove a costly one to them.  I suspect that some other firing will take place about that time—­eh, boys?”

The response revealed the feelings of the men, who were chafing under their restraint.

“But, surely,” continued Sterry, “they do not mean to burn the building while Mrs. Whitney and her daughter are within?”

“As was said some time ago,” replied Hawkridge, “that makes little difference, since it is not to be supposed that even we will stay inside during the conflagration.  The firing is meant to drive us out, and it will do it.”