purposely oblivious of them, for he hardly
glanced at her and said no word except to urge her on to greater
exertion.

When they approached the road which he wanted to cross, he warned her
with an oath to remain where he left her and went forward to
investigate, after which he returned and hurried her across into the
thicket upon the other side. And it was not until they were securely
hidden again far from the sight of any possible passers-by that he
untied the bonds at her wrists and took the gag from her mouth. But she
knew more than ever that she was completely in his power.

He was sinister. He typified terror, physical and mental--and behind the
threat of his very presence lay the gruesome vision of sand and sun and
the bearded man lying with the knife in his back. She tried to summon
her native courage to combat her fears, to believe that the situation in
which she found herself was not so evil as she imagined it--and that
soon Hawk Kennedy would have a change of heart and give her a chance to
speak in her own behalf. But he silenced her gruffly whenever she
addressed him and she gave up at last, in fear of bringing his wrath
upon her. She could see that he was deeply intent upon his object to get
her away from Black Rock where none could find her. And what then?

In a wild impulse--a moment of desperation, she broke away from him and
ran, but he caught her easily, for by this time she was very tired.
Again, she thought of a struggle with him hand to hand, but he read her
mind and drew a pistol, pushing her on ahead of him as before,
threatening bodily injury. By this time she had learned to believe him
capable of any cruelty. But she thanked God that the dangers that
threatened were only those which could come from a brutal enemy and in
his very brutality she even found refuge from the other and more
terrible alternative of his amiability. As Hawk had said, he wasn't "on
that lay this trip."

But what his ultimate purpose was she had no means of determining. She
knew that he was totally without scruple and had thought in her first
moments of terror that he meant to take her far back into the woods--and
there kill her as he had done her father, thus again destroying all
claim. But as the moments passed and she saw that he had some definite
objective, the feeble remnants of her courage gathered strength. Her
attempt to escape had failed, of course, but his tolerance gave her a
hope that he did not dare to do t