e to reach Dangloss with the warning.

Then the storm abated; the soft drip of rain from the eaves of the car
beat a monotonous tattoo in the pools below; the raw winds from the
mountains blew stealthily in the wake of the tornado, picking up the
waste that had been left behind only to cast it aside with a moan of
derision.

Something stirred in the far end of the car. A still, small noise as of
something alive that moved with the utmost wariness. A heavy, breathing
body crept stealthily across the intervening space; so quietly that a
mouse could have made but little less noise.

Then it stopped; there was not a sound inside the car except the deep,
regular breathing of Truxton King. The girl's respiration was so faint
that one might have thought she did not breathe at all. Again the sly,
cautious movement of a heavy body; the creaking of a joint or two, the
sound of a creature rising from a crouching position to the upright;
then the gentle rubbing of cloth, the fumbling of fingers in a stubborn
pocket.

An instant later the bluish flame of a sulphur match struggled for life,
growing stronger and brighter in the hand of a man who stood above the
sleepers.

CHAPTER XV

THE GIRL IN THE RED CLOAK

Inside of an hour after the return of the frightened, quivering groom
who had escaped from the brigands in the hills, Jack Tullis was granted
permission by the war department to take a hundred picked men with him
in the effort to overtake and capture the abductors of his sister. The
dazed groom's story hardly had been told to the horrified brother before
he was engaged in telephoning to General Braze and Baron Dangloss. A
hurried consultation followed. Other affairs that had been troubling the
authorities for days were forgotten in the face of this distressing
catastrophe; there was no time to be lost if the desperadoes were to be
headed before they succeeded in reaching the Dawsbergen passes with
their lovely captive. Once there, it would be like hunting a needle in a
haystack; they could elude pursuit for days among the wild crags of
upper Dawsbergen, where none but outlaws lived, and fierce beasts
thrived.

Unluckily for the dearest hopes of the rescuing party, the miserable
groom did not reach the city until almost noon of the day following the
abduction. He had lost his way and had wandered all night in the
forests. When Miss Tullis failed to return at nightfall, her brother,
having in mind the mysterious