Half a dozen feet from them he stopped with a cry of horror. They were Paul
and Peggy Blackton! Peggy was dishevelled and sobbing, and was frantically
clutching at her husband. It was Paul Blackton who dragged the cry from his
lips. The contractor was swaying. He was hatless; his face was covered with
blood, and his eyes were only half open, as if he were fighting to pull
himself back into consciousness after a terrible blow. Peggy's hair was
down, her dress was torn at the throat, and she was panting so that for a
moment she could not speak.

"They've got--Joanne!" she cried then. "They went--there!"

She pointed, and Aldous ran where she pointed--into the timber on the far
side of the little meadow. MacDonald caught his arm as they ran.

"You go straight in," he commanded. "I'll swing--to right--toward
river----"

For two minutes after that Aldous tore straight ahead. Then for barely a
moment he stopped. He had not paused to question Peggy Blackton. His own
fears told him who Joanne's abductors were. They were men working under
instructions from Quade. And they could not be far away, for scarcely ten
minutes had passed since the first scream. He listened, and held his breath
so that the terrific beating of his heart would not drown the sound of
crackling brush. All at once the blood in him was frozen by a fierce yell.
It was MacDonald, a couple of hundred yards to his right, and after that
yell came the bellowing shout of his name.

"Johnny! Johnny! Oh, Johnny!"

He dashed in MacDonald's direction, and a few moments later heard the
crashing of bodies in the undergrowth. Fifty seconds more and he was in the
arena. MacDonald was fighting three men in a space over which the
spruce-tops grew thinly. The moon shone upon them as they swayed in a
struggling mass, and as Aldous sprang to the combat one of the three reeled
backward and fell as if struck by a battering-ram. In that same moment
MacDonald went down, and Aldous struck a terrific blow with the butt of his
heavy Savage. He missed, and the momentum of his blow carried him over
MacDonald. He tripped and fell. By the time he had regained his, feet the
two men had disappeared into the thick shadows of the spruce forest. Aldous
whirled toward the third man, whom he had seen fall. He, too, had
disappeared. A little lamely old Donald brought himself to his feet. He was
smiling.

"Now, what do 'ee think, Johnny?"

"Where is she? Where is Joanne?" demanded Aldous.