he edge of the
water which presently led into the heart of the woods again, and there
almost before she was aware of it she found herself facing a small
wooden house or shanty which seemed in a fairly good state of
preservation.

Silently, Hawk Kennedy unfastened the hasp which held the door, and
gruffly ordered her to go inside. Wondering, she obeyed him. But her
captor now acted with a celerity which while it gave her new fears, set
other fears at rest, for he took the handkerchiefs from his pockets and
gagged and bound her arms and wrists again, pushing her down on a pile
of sacking which had served some one for a bed, tying her feet and knees
with ropes that were there so that she could neither move nor make a
sound.

There for a moment he stood, staring down at her with a grim kind of
humor, born of his successful flight.

"Some kid, by G----! I'm kinder sorry--d---- if I ain't. But ye hadn't
any business bein' who ye are. I believe I'd rather kill ye outright
than hurt ye any more--that I would. Maybe I won't have to do either.
Understand? But I got somethin' to do first. It ain't any child's play
an' I ain't got much time to spare. Be a good kid an' lie quiet an' go
to sleep and I'll be back after a while an' set ye free. Understand?"

Beth nodded helplessly, for it was the only thing that she could do and
with relief watched his evil shape darken the doorway out of which he
went, carefully closing the door and fastening the hasp on the outside.
Then she heard the crunch of his footsteps in the dry leaves behind the
Cabin. They moved rapidly and in a few moments she heard them no more.

Lying on her side, her head pillowed on the bagging, it did not seem at
first as though she were uncomfortable, and her eyes, wide open, peered
around her prison. There was a small window unglazed and by the light
which came from it she could see some axhandles piled in one corner of
the hut, several cross-cut saws on a box at one side, a few picks and a
shovel or two. It must be a tool house used for the storage of extra
implements and she remembered dimly that Shad had once spoken of the
cutting that had been begun down by the swamp and abandoned for a better
location. This then was where Hawk Kennedy had taken her and she knew
that it was a spot little visited nowadays except by hunters, and at
some distance from the scene of present logging operations, toward the
spur of the railroad. It was here perhaps that Hawk Kennedy