olly unarmed! Do you mean to restrain these ladies here by force?"

The horseman slipped his arm through the reins of his pony's bridle,
surveying Bostwick calmly.

"Do you mean to desert them if I do? I have not yet ordered you to
leave."

"Ordered me to leave!" echoed the car owner fiercely. "I can neither be
ordered to leave nor to stay! But I shall go--do you hear?--I shall
go--and the ladies with me! If you mean to rob us, do so at once and
have it over! My time is precious, if yours is not!"

Van smiled. "I might be tempted to rob a gentleman," he said, "but to
deprive your passengers of your company would be a charity. Pray waste
no more of your precious time if that is your only concern."

Beth had regained a shadow of her former composure. Her courage had
never been absent. She was less alarmed than before and decidedly
curious as to what this encounter might signify. She dared address the
horseman.

"But--but surely--you seem---- You must have some excellent reason
for--for acting so peculiarly."

He could not repress the brightness in his eyes as he met her
half-appealing gaze.

"Reason, advice, and information would apparently be alike unwelcome to
your chauffeur," he answered, doffing his hat. "He is eager to hasten on
his way, therefore by all means let us bid him begone."

Bostwick grew rapidly wilder at each intimation of his social standing--a
friend of the maid, and Beth's chauffeur! His impatience to proceed with
all possible haste to Goldite was consuming. He had not intended that
anything under the sun should delay him another single hour--not even
Beth, should occasion arise to detain her. Even now he was far more
concerned about himself and the business of his mission than he was for
the women in his charge. He was much afraid, however, of the horseman's
visible gun. He was not at all a person of courage, and the man before
him presented such an unknown quantity that he found himself more or less
helpless. At most he could merely attempt a bluff.

"You'll pay for this!" he cried somewhat shrilly, his face a black mask
of anger. "I'll give you just half a minute to release these ladies and
permit them to go with me in peace! If you refuse----"

The horseman interrupted.

"I said before you had not been ordered on your way, but now I've changed
my mind. Don't talk any more--get into your car and hike!"

The gleam in his eye achieved two results: It cowed the last