and get a cigar and see what the boys were doing. I couldn't find
them in the Palace, and went from place to place till I stumbled on
them in the Dugout, every last one of them down and out. I was looking
for Tweet, to have him take the bunch of them to camp in his car, when
I saw you folks come out of the restaurant."

"The Dugout," puzzled Jo. "Do they go there often?"

"Hardly ever. It's the worst dump in town, as you know. They're all
crooked enough, but I've heard strange whisperings about certain shady
happenings in the Dugout."

"Was anybody with them?"

"Not when I found them."

"Hiram," said Jo, "it sounds like dope to me. They're loyal to me, I
tell you. No, they're not to blame--they'd never treat me that way.
They've been doped."

"But why? And by whom?"

"Those are questions. None of them have any money on them to speak of,
I know. I've got the bank pass books of every one of them in my chest.
Again, who'd have the nerve to dope and try to roll a skinner of
Jerkline Jo's? He'd be playing with fire. These dive keepers know all
about me; they know my power. I could mobilize an army of two hundred
stiffs in an hour's time, and if I asked it they'd lay every dump in
Ragtown flat. You bet these parasites know better than to trifle with
Jerkline Jo."

Her dark eyes flashed angrily in the light of a store window.

"Well, let's not stand here bewailing our fate like children lost in
the woods. We've simply got to _get_ out to-morrow. Mr. Huber is wild
about the shortness of his stock of hay, and I promised to rush him all
I could. Get Tweet and dump my boys into his car and take 'em to camp.
We'll see what we can do to bring them out of it and make them fit for
the trip by morning."

Far into the morning hours, in the outfit's camp on the edge of town,
Jo and Hiram strove to revive the stupefied men, but nothing beyond
groans could they get from them.

"They're doped, Hiram--pitilessly doped!" Jo cried in despair at last.
"Go for Doctor Dennison. Carry him on your shoulders if he won't come."

The medical man came readily at Hiram's request, and after a brief
examination of the sluggish men remarked that Jo's surmise had been
correct. He then ordered her to go to her cabin and get some badly
needed sleep, and at once went to work on the unconscious quartet, with
Hiram aiding all he could.

"Whoever did this cursed thing, Wild Cat," said the physician, "was an
amateur. He might