Hannah quickly departed from the closet, closed the door and turned the button, and was on the stairway when the voice of Claudius Brown broke in upon the stillness, as the cowboy harshly said,—
"We 've come back for the rebel. We know he is here, Mistress Nott, and it will be better for every one if you give him up peaceably."
"You back here?" demanded Hannah boldly, as she stopped for a moment on the stairway. "I thought we were rid of you for good and all."
"‘A bad penny always returns,' laughed the leader. "What were you doing upstairs? Have you hidden him again?"
"I thought you found once that he was n't here," she replied quietly.
"We 've come back to try it again."
"Well, try it, then!" she exclaimed, her eyes flashing as she spoke.
"That's just what we 're going to do." Turning quickly, he ordered one man to take a position in the yard in front of the house and another to take a similar position in the rear. As soon as his orders had been obeyed he bade two go down into the cellar. "Stick your knives into everything there," he said
