they would only have
dealt with her more roughly had she done so. Then the
cross-eyed one proposed that they should take her into
the empty hut and tie her up. If they succeeded in getting
another rifle, as they expected they would, they could
wait inside and shoot the rancher and Jacques as they
unsuspiciously approached with the horses. Bastien Lagrange
could then be easily disposed of. It would be necessary
to put something in the girl's mouth--Leon suggested his
old woollen head-gear which the bear had chewed up--until
her friends were ambushed, as otherwise she might give
the alarm. Afterwards they could dispose of her at their
sweet leisure. This and more they discussed with such
candour and unreserve that had only the occasion and
necessity been different, the greatest credit would have
been reflected on them.

"Oh, you fiends!" cried the girl as the horror of the
situation dawned upon her. "Would you murder the men in
cold blood who spared your lives when they had every
right to take them? You cowards! Why don't you shoot
me? Do you think I am afraid of being shot?"

It was all like some horrible nightmare to her just then.
Brief time seemed such an eternity that she longed for
it to come to an end. She felt like one who, dreaming,
knows she dreams and struggles to awake.

The cross-eyed one was evidently delighted to see that
he had at length aroused this hitherto wonderfully
self-possessed girl to such a display of emotion; she
looked ever so much handsomer now that she was angry.
His watery, awry eyes gleamed, and his thick underlip
drooped complacently. He would see if she had as much
grit as she laid claim to. It was all in the day's sport;
but he would have to hurry up.

He seized the Winchester, and, holding it in front of
him, jerked down the lever as he had seen Dorothy do, so
as to eject the old and put a fresh cartridge into the
breech. But the old cartridge, in springing out, flew up
and hit him such a smart rap between the eyes that Leon
at once seized his little opportunity and laughed
ironically.

"Good shot, Lucien!" he cried. "Encore, _mon ami!_"

Lucien's eyes were watering and smarting, and he felt
quite like shooting his sympathetic friend on the spot,
but he kept his wrath bravely under, and resolved to show
Leon in a very practical fashion how he could shoot on
the first auspicious occasion. Yes, such a blessed
opportunity would be worth waiting and suffering for.

And now