ing look.

"Aw, it's nothin' to you," he retorted, but an uncomfortable expression
suddenly crept into his face. A loud, angry discussion ensued, the whole
gang engaging. Three to one was the way it stood against the leader, who
was forced to admit, secretly if not publicly, that he had no right to
talk freely of the matter to the girl. In vain she pleaded and promised.
Her tears were of no avail, once Sam had concluded to hold his tongue.
Angry with himself for having to submit to the demands of the others,
furious because she saw his surrender, Sam, without a word of warning,
suddenly struck her on the side of the head with the flat of his broad
hand, sending her reeling into the corner. Dazed, hurt and half stunned,
she dropped to her knees, unable to stand. With a piteous look in her
eyes she shrank back from another blow which seemed impending. Bill
Briggs grasped his leader's arm and drew him away, cursing and snarling.

Late in the afternoon, Bill was permitted to conduct her into the cabin
above, for a few minutes in the air, and for a glimpse of the failing
sunlight. She had scarcely taken her stand before the little window when
she was hastily jerked away, but not before she thought she had
perceived a crowd of men, huddling among the trees not far away. A
scream for help started to her lips; but Bill's heavy hand checked it
effectually. His burly arm sent her scuttling toward the trap-door; and
a second later she was below, bruised from the fall and half fainting
with disappointment and despair.

Brief as the glimpse had been, she was positive she recognised two faces
in the crowd of men--Anderson Crow's and Ed Higgins's. It meant, if her
eyes did not deceive her, that the searchers were near at hand, and that
dear, old Daddy Crow was leading them. Her hopes flew upward and she
could not subdue the triumphant glance that swept the startled crowd
when Bill breathlessly broke the news.

Absolute quiet reigned in the cave after that. Maude cowed the prisoner
into silence with the threat to cut out her tongue if she uttered a cry.
Later, the tramp of feet could be heard on the floor of the cabin.
There was a sound of voices, loud peals of laughter, and then the noise
made by some one in the cellar that served as a blind at one end of the
cabin. After that, dead silence. At nightfall, Sam stealthily ventured
forth to reconnoitre. He came back with the report that the woods and
swamps were clear and that the sea