idge.

"No; driver's drunk, maybe," Lou responded. "The horse's dead beat an'
he's lashin' it on. Listen!"

Jim heard the wild gallop falter and drop into a weary trot, only to
leap forward again with a wild scramble of hoofs on the rocky road as
though the wretched animal was spurred on by sudden pain, and he
clenched his hands.

As though reading his thoughts, Lou remarked:

"Only a beast himself would treat a horse that way. The folks at the
farm where I was treated theirs somethin' terrible. If he don't look out
he'll go over the side of the bridge."

Jim had already started for the road in front of the mill, and Lou
followed him, just as a perilously swaying lantern came to view, showing
an old-fashioned carriage of the "buggy" type containing a single
occupant and drawn by a horse which was streaked with lather.

The light wagon hit the bridge with a bounce which almost sent it
careening over into the rushing stream below, and at the same moment Lou
uttered an odd exclamation, more of anger than fear, and straightened up
to her full height.

"It's Max!" she informed Jim. "You git back behind the mill; you ain't
fit to fight----"

"What do you take me for?" Jim demanded indignantly. "Max Hess, eh? The
fellow who treated you so badly back at that farm? I wanted to get him
this morning, the hound! You go straight back into the mill yourself,
and leave me to handle him."

But he was too late. The wagon had crossed the bridge and halted in
front of them so suddenly that the horse slid along for a pace upon his
haunches.

"Got yer!" a thick voice announced triumphantly, as a burly figure
wrapped the reins around the whip socket and lumbered to the ground.
"Yah! I thought there was a feller in it, somewheres!"

He approached them with menacingly clenched fists, but Jim asked coldly:

"Are you addressing this young woman?"

"Young thief, you mean! She's gotter come----"

But Jim, too, had advanced a pace.

"Take that back and get in your wagon and beat it," he announced
distinctly, with a calmness which the other mistook for mildness. "If
your name is Hess, this young woman is not going back with you, and I
warn you now to be off."

"So that's it, is it?" the heavy voice sneered. "She's my mother's hired
girl, an' she stole a lot o' food an' ran away this mornin'. Comes o'
takin' in an asylum brat----"

"Take that back, too, you blackguard!" Jim's voice was beginning to
shake.

"Take nothin' back,