an's coarse laughter. Bessie started to her feet,
her eyes staring in fright. And she led the rush of the whole party to
the edge of the bluff.

Driving swiftly down the road away from Hedgeville was a runabout. And
in it Bessie saw Zara, held fast by a big man whose back she recognized
at once. It was Farmer Weeks!

"Oh, that's Farmer Weeks!" she cried "He'll get them to give Zara to
him, and he'll beat her and treat her terribly."

Despairingly she made to run after the disappearing horse. But Wanaka
checked her, gently.

"We must be careful--and slow," she said.

CHAPTER VII

A FRIEND IN NEED

"But we must do something, really we must, Miss Eleanor!" cried Bessie.
"I must, I mean. Zara trusted me, and if I don't help her now, just
think of what will happen."

"You must keep calm, Bessie, that's the first thing to think of. If you
let yourself get excited and worked up you won't help Zara, and you'll
only get into trouble yourself. You say she trusted you--now you must
trust me a little. Tell me, first, just what this man will do and if he
has any right at all to touch her."

"Why, he's the meanest man in town, Wanaka! He really is--everyone says
so! None of the men would work for him in harvest time. They said he
worked them to death and wouldn't give them enough to eat."

"Yes, but why should he pick Zara up that way and carry her off?"

"Because he wants to make her work for him. He's awfully rich, and Paw
Hoover said he'd lent money to so many men in the village and all around
that they had to do just what he told them, or he'd sell their land and
their horses and cattle. And he said he'd make the people at the
poor-farm bind Zara over to him and then she'd have to work for him
until she was twenty-one, just for her board."

"That's pretty serious, Bessie. I'm sure he wouldn't be a good guardian,
but if he had such influence over the men, maybe they wouldn't stop to
think about that."

She was silent for a minute, thinking hard.

"Where was he going with her, Bessie? He seemed to be driving away from
Hedgeville."

"Yes, he was. I suppose he was going over to Zebulon. That's the county
seat, and he goes over there quite often. Almost every time they hold
court, I guess. Paw Hoover said he was a mighty bad neighbor, always
getting into lawsuits."

"Well, I think I'd better go to Zebulon. If I talk to him, perhaps I can
make him give Zara up. How far is it, Bessie?"

"Only about two mil