otice how helplessly the first of
the two women walked--as though her limbs refused to support her body,
even though apparently upheld by the grip of the man beside her. Rale,
joining them, immediately grasped her other arm, and, between the two,
she was impelled forward. The saloon keeper seemed unable to restrain
his voice.

"Yer must'r give her one hell o' a dose," he growled, angrily. "Half
o' thet wud a bin 'nough. Why, damn it, she kin hardly walk."

"Well, what's the odds?" it was Kirby who replied sarcastically. "She
got more because she wouldn't drink. We had to make her take it, and
it wasn't no easy job. Gaskins will tell you that. Have you got your
man here?"

"O' course; he's waitin' thar with the hosses. But I'm damned if I
like this. She don't know nuthin', does she?"

"Maybe not now; but she'll come around all right, and she signed her
name. So there ain't no hitch. She seemed to get worse after that.
Come on, we can't stand talking here; let's get them off, Jack, there
isn't any time to waste. I suppose we'll have to strap her into the
saddle."

I held back, and permitted them to work, merely leading my own horse
slightly to one side, and keeping in his shadow. I doubt if Kirby even
glanced toward me, although if he did he saw only an ill-defined
figure, with no glimpse of my face. But the chances were that I was
nothing to him at that moment--a mere floating bum whom Rale had picked
up to do this job; and just then his whole attention was concentrated
upon the half-conscious girl, and his desire to get her safely out of
that neighborhood. My presence meant nothing of special interest.
Gaskins brutally jerked the shrinking mulatto forward, and forced her
to mount one of the horses. She made some faint protest, the nature of
which I failed to catch clearly, but the fellow only laughed in reply,
and ordered her to keep quiet. Eloise uttered no word, emitted no
sound, made no struggle, as the two other men lifted her bodily into
the saddle, where Kirby held her, swaying helplessly against him, while
Rale strapped her securely into place.

The entire proceedings were so brutally cruel that it required all my
strength of will to restrain myself from action. My fingers closed
upon the pistol in my pocket, and every impulse urged me to hurl myself
on the fellows, trusting everything to swift, bitter fight. I fairly
trembled in eagerness to grapple with Kirby, hand to hand, and crush