ecover----"

"Oh, he'll come around all right enough," growled the man called Shime.
He was running the automobile, and now Dave was able to place him as a
fellow who worked around a livery stable and garage in Rockville. Shime
was a drinking man, and his reputation was far from an enviable one.

"How much further have we to go?" asked Jasniff, after a few minutes of
silence.

"Not far," answered the driver of the automobile. "We'll take to the
side road now. Hold fast, it's pretty rough," and then the touring car
turned off the main highway and began bumping over the rocks and ruts of
a narrow wood road. The way was uphill, and the driver had to throw in
his second speed to gain the top of the rise. Then the car made a sharp
turn, and halted in front of a stone building.

"Is this the place?" asked Jasniff.

"Yes," answered Shime. "Wait till I light a lantern, and then you can
bring him in."

"I shall have to care for him when we are in the house," said the fourth
person of the party who had carried Dave off. It was Doctor Montgomery,
and his breath was thick from liquor.

Still thinking he might get a chance to escape if he made out that he
was unconscious, Dave hung limp in the automobile, and allowed his
captors to lift him out and place him on the ground. Then he was carried
into the stone building and placed on a bench.

"You certainly dosed him strongly," said Hooker Montgomery. "I had
better make an examination. Loosen up his hands and feet."

A little bit alarmed, Jasniff and Merwell set to work and released Dave
from his bonds. In the meantime Shime had lit a lantern, and placed it
on a rough table. Doctor Montgomery got out a medicine case, and began
to mix up a potion in a glass.

"This ought to bring him around," he said, in a thick, unsteady voice.

Dave did not dare to look around, but by the draught in the room he knew
that the door must have been left open, probably to give him more air.
He did not think the disreputable physician was in any condition to
administer his medicines, and he did not propose to swallow any if he
could avoid it.

"I must escape," he thought, and with a moan, as if in great pain, he
twisted around, and opened his eyes for an instant.

That instant was long enough for him to locate the doorway, and beyond
he made out a stretch of woodland, lit up by the lamps of the
automobile. Between him and the doorway stood Merwell and Jasniff, with
Shime and the doctor on th