. Not
until they had walked another half-hour at that gruelling pace were
they in time to see a black spot just about to disappear ahead.

"Down!" cried Bela, and they dropped full length in the grass until it
had gone.

Bela, springing up, led the way at a run across the intervening grass.
She had to hold herself back for the men. Joe was too heavy to be a
runner, and Jack was beginning to feel the handicap of his years.

Nearing the willows, she held up her hand for caution. They ran
lightly in the grass. Neither man could see or hear anything;
nevertheless Bela indicated by signs that the one they sought was
just around the bushes. At the last moment she held back and let them
go first.

Sam, having decided that the danger of immediate pursuit was over, was
sitting on the ground eating his lunch when, without warning, Jack and
Joe fell on him, bowling him over on his back. He struggled
desperately, but was helpless under their combined weight. Joe, with a
snarl, lifted his clenched hand over Sam's face. Big Jack held it.

"Not while he's down," he muttered.

Bela, following close, drew Sam's hands together and bound his wrists
with her strips of hide.

Sam, seeing her, cried out: "You've sold me out again! I might have
known it!"

Bela, fearing his words might start Jack thinking things over, cried
out hysterically: "I got you now! You think you run away, eh? You done
wit' me! You laugh w'en I cry. I fix you for that! I put you where you
can't hurt no more girls!"

To Jack and Joe it seemed natural under the circumstances. Sam glared
at her in angry amazement, and opened his mouth to reply. But thinking
better of it, he set his jaw and kept quiet.

He submitted to superior force, and they immediately started back on
the long walk to the boats. There was little said _en route_. Only
Joe, unable to contain his rancour, occasionally burst out in brutal
reviling. Sam smiled at him. More than once Big Jack was called on to
restrain Joe's fist.

"A bargain is a bargain," he reminded him.

Bela, bringing up the rear, glared at the back of Joe's head with pure
savage hatred. When any of them chanced to look at her, her face was
wholly stolid.

Black Shand's face lightened as they brought Sam over the bank.

"So it was on the level," he remarked.

It was now some time past noon, and the word was given to eat before
embarking. Sam, with his bound hands in his lap, sat on a great sod
which had fallen from t