orders is," said the other significantly.

"Sorry I can't tell y'u, lady. Orders is orders."

"Oh, well, I don't suppose it would do me any good to know where I am,
anyway, but you might as well tell me what you are going to do with me.
It would relieve my anxiety, and make me feel better."

"There ain't no harm comin' to y'u, lady, while I am with y'u," said the
fellow, with a hateful leer that made Stella shudder.

"Thank you," she said faintly, as with a sigh she laid her head back
again with her wet handkerchief on her brow.

So the stage rumbled on for almost an hour, with Stella the prey of
sickness and pain. She doubted if she could have walked even if she had
been permitted to leave the stage.

But as she lay there she thought, and from the scraps of conversation
she had heard, and from what her guide was about to tell her when he was
interrupted by the driver, she knew that she had been captured and
abducted during the fight by Shan Rhue's men, and that she was in the
Wichita Mountains.

That much, at least, she knew, but what caused her much anxiety was that
she did not know the result of the fight.

She came to the conclusion that the broncho boys and their friends must
have lost in the encounter, else she would not be in her present
predicament.

But what of poor old Norris, for in spite of his rascality she was sorry
that he had fallen into the hands of the ruthless Shan Rhue.

"Keep off to the left," shouted the guide. "We're almost there. Down
into that coulee y'u go. There ain't another crossin' this side o' three
mile, an' we ain't got time to go so far out o' our way."

"Say, we're liable to turn over down there. Better get the gal out, an'
let her walk down. I can get safe up the other side."

"All right. Stop 'er."

The stage stopped, and the cessation of the swaying, swinging motion was
a blessed relief to the tortured girl.

"Come on out," said the guide, as he threw the door open. "We'll have to
ask you to walk to the bottom o' this coulee, if y'u don't want to be
scrambled about on the bottom o' the coach."

Stella was glad to get out, but when her feet were on the ground she
swayed and staggered like a drunken person from sheer sickness and
weakness.

Beside her was her guide on his horse, and she was compelled to lean
against it for a moment until she recovered herself.

The stage had gone lumbering and swaying down the bank of the coulee,
and before it reached the bottom