where they were going.

For half an hour longer the car made its way across the country, and
then Farland noticed that it left the principal thoroughfare and turned
into a rough, narrow lane that was bordered with big trees. At the end
of a quarter of a mile of this lane, the chauffeur brought the car to a
stop. Farland could see a building that had the appearance of being an
abandoned farmhouse.

He was lifted from the car and carried to the door. One of the men threw
it open, and Farland was carried inside. They took him through a hall,
turned into a room, and tossed him upon a couch in a corner there. One
of them struck a match, lighted a lamp, and then they turned to survey
him.

Farland glared at them, waited for them to speak. They were making no
attempt to hide their features. Typical thugs they were, the three of
them, and Farland supposed that the chauffeur, who had not come into the
house with the others, belonged to the same class.

One of them stepped forward and removed Farland's gag, while another
went into another room and presently returned with a dipper of water,
which he held to Farland's lips. He drank greedily, for the gag had
parched his mouth and throat.

"Bein' as how you are a copper, I'd slip a knife between your ribs and
call it a good job," one of the men told him, "but we are supposed to
treat you nice and keep you in condition for a little talk with the
boss. So you needn't tremble with fear any."

"It'd take more than three bums like you to make me afraid!" Farland
told him.

"Nasty, ain't you? Maybe we'll get a little chance to beat you up later,
especially if your little talk with the boss ain't what they call
productive of results. You've got some reputation as a dick, but I
reckon it's all a fake. We didn't have much trouble gettin' you and
bringin' you here."

"Isn't that enough to make you worry a bit?" Farland asked.

"How do you mean?"

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I wanted to be captured and
hauled here? Have you any idea how many men watched and trailed us?
You've led me to where I wanted to come, to a place I wanted to find,
perhaps."

"That bluff won't work," came the reply. "We had a couple of men
watchin' for that very thing, and they'd have given us a high sign if we
had been followed. You're here all by your lonesome, and so you'd better
be good."

Two of the men left the room, and the third sat down by the table to act
as guard. Fifteen minutes pa