he street see that done, Driggs?" whispered the voice of
Abner Dexter.

"Nary one," retorted Driggs, in a more natural voice than he had used
before.

Though Dick Prescott was half strangled he heard both voices, now, and
they sounded wholly natural to him. Driggs was disguised, but Dexter had
taken no such pains.

"Now, you keep mighty quiet, or you'll be worse off than you thought
your father was," snarled Ab. Dexter. He had Dick jammed down on the
floor, the boy's head just above the man's lap. Dexter's fingers kept
their fearful grip at the boy's throat.

Not that Dick didn't fight back. He fought with all his strength. Yet
that was not for long. Dexter had taken a foul hold and had the boy at
his mercy. The gripping at the throat continued until Dick's muscles
relaxed and he was still.

"He'll come back to his senses, though, in a minute," uttered Dexter to
himself. He drew out a big handkerchief and a bottle. There was an odor
of something sickishly sweet in the air for a moment, as the
handkerchief was pressed to the boy's nostrils.

All the time Driggs had continued to drive onward at a brisk trot.

"I've got to open up this curtain a bit, Driggs," called Ab. Dexter, in
a not-too-loud voice. "I don't want to whiff in much of the stuff that
I'm giving the youngster."

Yet, though some air was admitted to the rear part of the surrey Dexter
took pains not to expose himself to the possibly too-curious glance of
any passer on the street. At the same time the man bent over Dick, to
note any signs of returning consciousness.

At last, seeing that second inhalation of the drug had rendered Dick
wholly senseless, Dexter drew another handkerchief from a pocket, and
with this he gagged the boy. Then, a moment later, he reached down and
tied the youngster's hands.

It was in a direction very different from that of Dick's home that the
surly, silent Driggs was driving. Before long he was out in the suburbs
of the town, traveling up the back country into the hills.

"The cub will learn, this time," mused Dexter savagely. "If he doesn't,
it will be because he's too stubborn to learn anything. And, in that
case----"

After the first half hour the road grew wilder. After going some two
miles up into the hills Driggs turned off at the right, following a road
used only in winter, and then principally by wood-cutters. Thus on,
farther and farther into the woods, and turning, now and then, off into
branching roads.