ome way or other,
among the orange trees, she managed to get separated from the rest of
the party. She was so engrossed with happy thoughts of the success of
her plan to help Mrs. Bragley and so absorbed in imagining the woman's
surprise and joy at the news she was about to receive that it was some
time before she woke up to the fact that she was alone.

The predicament--if indeed it was one--did not particularly worry her,
for she knew that she could find her way back to the road easily enough
and that there was no possibility in the world of her becoming really
lost.

As she stood reveling in the tropical beauty of the scene and smiling
happily to herself, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind that
banished the smile from her lips and brought an anxious frown to her
brow.

"I've left my bag in the car!" she told herself. "And with all Mrs.
Bragley's papers in it! If I should lose them now, after bringing them
safely all this way----"

Action followed swift upon the thought, and she started through the
grove in the direction she had come.

"Not so fast! Not so fast!" said a voice beside her, and the next moment
a man darted out from the shelter of the trees and stepped directly in
her path. He was, as Nan knew the minute she heard his voice, the tall,
thin man with the straight line for a mouth, with whom she had had so
many unpleasant meetings before. His face showed a desperate expression.

Nan did not scream, although much alarmed. She glanced over her shoulder
with a half-formed thought of escape, but the man sprang forward and
laid a rough hand on her arm.

"None of that, my little lady," said the sneering voice. "You are not
going to get away from us this time until we get what we want. Just a
little document or two is all we want. Quick now--hand it over."

"I--I haven't any document!" gasped Nan, adding with a little flare of
temper: "If you don't let go of my arm I--I'll scream."

"Oh, no, you won't! Slicker, that's your job."

Before Nan could move a soft, fat hand was pressed over her mouth from
behind and she twisted about to find that her second captor was the
short, fat man who had been the companion of her more dangerous enemy on
the boat.

"Come, we're in a hurry," snapped the latter, and Nan's terrified eyes
came back to his. "Will you give 'em to us or do we have to take them?"

Nan shook her head, and with a snort of impatience the man laid rough
hands upon her and began to searc