uggle forth. However, he assured himself
of two things; he was comparatively comfortable, and within two hours at
the most they would reach Hodges' headquarters, if the Wekusko camp were
really to be their destination. Something must develop then.

It had ceased to occur to him that there was peril in his strange
position. If that were so, would his captors have left him in possession
of his weapons, even imprisoned as he was? If they had intended him
harm, would they have cushioned his box and placed a pillow under his
head so that the cloth about his mouth would not cause him discomfort?
It struck him as peculiarly significant, now that he had suffered
no injury in the short struggle on the trail, that no threats or
intimidation had been offered after his capture. This was a part of the
game which he was to play! He became more and more certain of it as
the minutes passed, and there occurred to him again and again the
inspector's significant words, "Whatever happens!" MacGregor had spoken
the words with particular emphasis, had repeated them more than once.
Were they intended to give him a warning of this, to put him on his,
guard, as well as at his ease?

And with these thoughts, many, conflicting and mystifying, he found it
impossible to keep from associating other thoughts of Bucky Nome, and
of the woman whom he now frankly confessed to himself that he loved.
If conditions had been a little different, if the incidents had not
occurred just as they had, he have suspected the hand of Bucky Nome in
what was transpiring now. But he discarded that suspicion the instant
that it came to him. That which remained with him more and more deeply
as the minutes passed was a mental picture of the two women--of this
woman who was fighting to save her husband, and of the other, whom he
loved, and for whom he had fought to save her for her husband. It was
with a dull feeling of pain that he compared the love, the faith, and
the honor of this woman whose husband had committed a crime with that
one night's indiscretion of Mrs. Becker. It was in her eyes and face
that he had seen a purity like that of an angel, and the pain seemed to
stab him deeper when he thought that, after all, it was the criminal's
wife who was proving herself, not Mrs. Becker.

He strove to unburden his mind for a time, and turned his head so that
he could peer through the hole in the side of the box. The moon had
risen, and now and then he caught flashes of t