ind his mother and glared back. Bill moved over to Sam's side. For a
moment the air was heavy with signs of an affray. Rosalie crouched in
her corner, her hand over her ears, her eyes closed. There was murder in
Davy's face. "I'll break every bone in your body!" added Sam; but Bill
laconically stayed him with a word.

"Rats!" It was brief, but it brought the irate Sam to his senses.
Trouble was averted for the time being.

"Davy ain't afraid of him," cried that worthy's mother shrilly.

"You bet I ain't!" added Davy after a long string of oaths. Sam grinned
viciously.

"There ain't nothin' to fight about, I guess," he said, although he did
not look it. "We'd be fools to scrap. Everything to lose and nothin' to
gain. All I got to say, Davy, is that you ain't to touch that girl."

"Who's goin' to touch her?" roared Davy, bristling bravely. "An' you
ain't to touch her nuther," he added.

The day wore away, although it was always night in the windowless cave,
and again the trio of men slept, with Maude as guard. Exhausted and
faint, Rosalie fell into a sound sleep. The next morning she ate
sparingly of the bacon and bread and drank some steaming coffee, much to
the derisive delight of the hag.

"You had to come to it, eh?" she croaked. "Had to feed that purty face,
after all. I guess we're all alike. We're all flesh and blood, my lady."

The old woman never openly offered personal violence to the girl. She
stood in some fear of the leader--not physical fear, but the strange
homage that a brute pays to its master. Secretly she took savage delight
in treading on the girl's toes or in pinching her arms and legs,
twisting her hair, spilling hot coffee on her hands, cursing her softly
and perpetrating all sorts of little indignities that could not be
resented, for the simple reason that they could not be proved against
her. Her word was as good as Rosalie's.

Hourly the strain grew worse and worse. The girl became ill and feverish
with fear, loathing and uncertainty. Her ears rang with the horrors of
their lewdness, her eyes came to see but little, for she kept them
closed for the very pain of what they were likely to witness. In her
heart there grew a constant prayer for deliverance from their clutches.
She was much too strong-minded and healthy to pray for death, but her
mind fairly reeled with the thoughts of the vengeance she would exact.

The third day found the gang morose and ugly. The confinement was as
irksom