ed at the table
with paper and an ink-horn before her. She was writing. Presently
she stopped--the pen was bad. She got up and went away to her room.
Instantly Bucklaw laid his plan. He entered as she disappeared, went to
the table and looked at the paper on which she had been writing. It bore
but the words, "Dear Friend." He caught up the quill and wrote hurriedly
beneath them, this:

"If you'd see two gentlemen fighting, go now where you stopped them last
night. The wrong one may be killed unless."

With a quick flash of malice he signed, in half a dozen lightning-like
strokes, with a sketch of his hook. Then he turned, hurried into the
little hall, and so outside, and posted himself beside a lilac bush,
drawing down a bunch of the flowers to drink in their perfume. Jessica,
returning, went straight to the table. Before she sat down she looked
up to the mantel, but the swords were there. She sighed, and a tear
glistened on her eyelashes. She brushed it away with her dainty
fingertips and, as she sat down, saw the paper. She turned pale, caught
it up, read it with a little cry, and let it drop with a shudder of fear
and dismay. She looked round the room. Everything was as she had left
it. She was dazed. She stared at the paper again, then ran and opened
the panel through which Bucklaw had passed, and found the outer door
ajar. With a soft, gasping moan she passed into the garden, went swiftly
by the lilac bush and on towards the trees. Bucklaw let her do so; it
was his design that she should be some way from the house. But, hidden
by the bushes, he was running almost parallel with her. On the other
side of her was Radisson, also running. She presently heard them and
swerved, poor child, into the gin of the fowler! But as the cloak was
thrown over her head she gave a cry.

The firs, where Iberville and Gering had just plucked out their swords,
were not far, and both men heard. Gering, who best knew the voice, said
hurriedly: "It is Jessica!"

Without a word Iberville leaped to the open, and came into it ahead of
Gering. They saw the kidnappers and ran. Iberville was the first to find
what Bucklaw was carrying. "Mother of God," he called, "they're taking
her off!"

"Help! help!" cried Gering, and they pushed on. The two ruffians were
running hard, but it had been an unequal race at the best, and Jessica
lay unconscious in Bucklaw's arms, a dead weight. Presently they plunged
into the bushes and disappeared. Ibervil