ime."

"They're doin' all they can. Y'u don't want me to kill them before we
get there, do y'u?" asked the driver crossly.

"No, but if y'u miss the bunch y'u know what will happen. Shan ain't
much on the sweet temper since the kid bumped him so hard, an' he don't
like y'u too well, nohow. I'm just givin' y'u a friendly tip."

"Keep it. I ain't so stuck on Shan myself as I used to be."

"Only don't let him know it. We ain't none of us in love with him, an'
yet we come up an' eat out o' his hand when he calls us, just like a lot
o' hound dogs."

The conversation told Stella the truth she had dreaded. She had been
captured by Shan Rhue's ruffians, and she knew that she was in a
precarious predicament, for she could hope for no mercy from Ted's
merciless and beaten enemy.

She would be used to punish Ted, and she sighed at the thought of what
grief her disappearance would cause her aunt and the boys.

Suddenly the curtain on the window was drawn aside. It was bright
moonlight without, and in it she saw the villainous face of a man
looking in upon her.

Her eyes met his, and she uttered an exclamation.

"Hello!" he exclaimed, in surprise. "Come to, have y'u?"

Stella made no reply.

"Thought fer a while that y'u'd slipped over the Great Divide," the
fellow continued.

"No fault of yours that I didn't," said Stella weakly, for the pain and
nausea to which she was being subjected had taken all her strength.

"I ain't had nothin' to do with it, lady. I'm just guidin' the outfit. I
don't know y'u, er how y'u got hurt. Feelin' better?"

"I would be much better if I could get out and walk. The motion of this
carriage makes me deathly sick."

"Can't let y'u do that, lady. We're in too much of a hurry to stop
now."

"But you might let me have a drink of water. I am dying of thirst."

"I reckon I can do that."

The flap over the stage window dropped, and in a moment she heard hushed
voices outside. Then a canteen was thrust through the window.

"Take all y'u want, lady, an' drink hearty," said her guide.

Stella wet her handkerchief and bathed her throbbing forehead, then took
a deep draft, and felt much refreshed.

"Here's your canteen," she said.

Again the flap was thrust aside, and the ugly face looked in upon her
with a leer.

"Where are we, and where are we going?" asked Stella.

"We're in the Wich--"

"Hey, Jack, stow that," cried the driver.

"But it won't do no harm--"

"You know what the