"Where are you taking me?" inquired Jane Ryder.

"To safety," I replied. "The house is to be raided to-night, and I
decided to bring you away. You saved me from a prison, and now I
propose to save you."

"I saved you? You are mistaken; it was that foolish woman, Miss Ryder."

"Well, she said that you are her dearest friend, and I'm saving you to
please her."

"You needn't hold me so tight. I'm in no danger of falling off. Where
are you taking me?"

"To General Forrest." She caught her breath, and then did her utmost to
fling herself from the horse. When she found that her strength was not
equal to the task of removing my arms or lifting them so she could slip
from the saddle, she began to use her tongue, which has ever been
woman's safest weapon.

"You traitor!" she cried; "oh, you traitor! I wish I had died before I
ever saw you."

"But this is the safest course," I insisted. "You will see, and then
you will thank me for bringing you away."

"And I thought you were a gentleman; I took you for an honest man. Oh,
if hate could kill you you would fall dead from this horse. What have I
done that I should come in contact with such a villain?"

[Illustration: "If hate could kill you, you would fall dead from this
horse."]

"You have a pistol," I said--I had felt it against my arm--"and it is
easy for you to use it. If you think so meanly of me why not rid the
earth of such a villain?"

"Do you know who I am?" she asked with a gasp of apprehension.

"Why, certainly," I answered. "Do you think I'd be taking the trouble
to save you else?"

"Trouble to save me? Save me? Why, I hope your savage General will hang
me as high as Haman."

"He would if he were a savage," I said, "and he would if you were a
man. And he may put you in prison as it is; you would certainly go
there if captured by the Forty Thieves. I am taking one chance in a
thousand. But better for you to be in prison, where you will be safe,
than for you to be going around here masquerading as a man and
subjecting yourself to the insults of all sorts of men."

"You are the only man that has ever insulted me. Do you hear?
You--gentleman!" she hissed. "Can't you see that I despise you? Won't
you believe it? Does it make no difference?"

"Not the least in the world," I replied. "Now, you must compose
yourself; you can be brave enough when you will--I think you are the
bravest woman I ever saw----"

"I wish I could say you are a brave man; but you a