"The door!--the door!--death!" he added, as he tried the handle, "it is locked--and I am unarmed.

Madman that I am to be so!" "Help!" shrieked Mrs.Sheppard.
"Be silent," said Jonathan, striding deliberately into the room; "these cries will avail you nothing.

Whoever answers them must assist me to capture your son.

Be silent, I say, if you value his safety." Awed by Jonathan's manner, Mrs.Sheppard repressed the scream that rose to her lips, and both mother and son gazed with apprehension at the heavy figure of the thief-taker, which, viewed in the twilight, seemed dilated to twice its natural size, and appeared almost to block up the window.

In addition to his customary arms, Jonathan carried a bludgeon with a large heavy knob, suspended from his wrist by a loop; a favourite weapon, which he always took with him on dangerous expeditions, and which, if any information had been requisite, would have told Sheppard that the present was one of them.
"Well, Jack," he said, after a pause, "are you disposed to go back quietly with me ?" "You'll ascertain that when you attempt to touch me," rejoined Sheppard, resolutely.
"My janizaries are within call," returned Wild.