dland down to the river bank, a journey of two or three hundred
yards, it seemed. Here the party paused for many minutes before
venturing out upon the wide expanse of frozen river, evidently making
sure that the way was clear. Rosalie, her senses quite fully restored by
this time, began to analyse the situation with a clearness and calmness
that afterward was the object of considerable surprise to her. Instead
of being hysterical with fear, she was actually experiencing the thrill
of a real emotion. She had no doubt but that her abductors were persons
hired by those connected with her early history, and, strange as it may
seem, she could not believe that bodily harm was to be her fate after
all these years of secret attention on the part of those so deeply,
though remotely, interested.

Somehow there raced through her brain the exhilarating conviction that
at last the mystery of her origin was to be cleared away, and with it
all that had been as a closed book. No thought of death entered her mind
at that time. Afterward she was to feel that death would be most
welcome, no matter how it came.

Her captors made the trip across the river in dead silence. There was no
moon and the night was inky black. The exposed portions of her face
tingled with cold, but she was so heavily wrapped in the blanket that
her body did not feel the effects of the zero weather.

At length the icy stretch was passed, and after resting a few minutes,
Sam proceeded to ascend the steep bank with her in his arms. Why she was
not permitted to walk she did not know then or afterward. It is
possible, even likely, that the men thought their charge was
unconscious. She did nothing to cause them to think otherwise. Again
they passed among trees, Sam's companions following in his footprints as
before. Another halt and a brief command for Davy to go ahead and see
that the coast was clear came after a long and tortuous struggle through
the underbrush. Twice they seemed to have lost their bearings in the
darkness, but eventually they came into the open.

"Here we are!" grunted Sam as they hurried across the clearing. "A hard
night's work, pals, but I guess we're in Easy Street now. Go ahead,
Davy, an' open the trap!"

Davy swore a mighty but sibilant oath and urged his thick, ugly figure
ahead of the others.

A moment later the desperadoes and their victim passed through a door
and into a darkness even blacker than that outside. Davy was pounding
caref