atory eyes, her captor only clasped her the closer so that his
alcoholic breath came sickeningly close to her face. He chuckled
thickly as he added, "I reckon I kin allow ye a leetle time--because
we're beholden ter ye. We didn't hev no notion whar yore beau war
a-hidin' at twell we left thet note over thar. Then ye led us straight
ter ther place."

* * * * *

Turner Stacy had clambered and slid precariously down the hickory tree
without greater mishap than raw and bleeding hands. Once more on the
ground, he ran like a madman, bending low in the timber.

The signal fire which he meant to build on the bald crest of Pinnacle
Rock, would send out a flare visible to three states. Already he was
twenty-five hundred feet above sea-level, but there remained a climb of
almost a thousand more, and he was taking the direct and well-nigh
perpendicular route.

Breathless, panting, vaulting from rock to rock; gripping, on faith,
root and sapling, he climbed the steep stairway--where sometimes the
earth shelved away underfoot--and he clutched wildly out for fresh
support. Once there, with a fire blazing, he would have twenty or more
of his nearest adherents riding to the rescue. They would rally on the
highway just below the signal fire itself and there seek
instructions--or signs. Fortunately for the present need, the
night-riders had developed a mysterious but thorough system of
communication. Their code of signals embraced a series of crude
emblems, which to the initiated designated the zone into which they
were called for action.

With frenzied haste Bear Cat laid and lighted his fire on the bald
summit--pausing only long enough to see its red glare leaping upward.
Then he plunged downward again.

Along the highroad, which, for a little way, he followed boldly, he
placed peeled twigs bent into circles at various conspicuous places,
knowing that those who were to come would read from them the course to
follow.

After that he disappeared into the thickets again and traveled swiftly.
Twice, as he hurried, soft-footed, through the woods he halted and
threw himself flat while members of the pursuing party well-nigh ran
over him. But eventually he reached a litter of giant rocks that stood
like undisciplined sentinels guarding the cave's entrance. Then he
stopped and listened, and when he heard no sound he crept forward
obsessed with apprehension. He could not escape the feeling that th