led upon the floor,
trying to extricate himself from the wreck of her door, and so escape.

But before he could do this, and before the old woman had ceased her
attack, there was a shout outside, a horse was brought to an abrupt halt
at the gate, and a huge figure in black flung itself from the saddle, and
came running through the gate and up to the cottage.

"What you got there, Missus?" roared the deep voice of Bill Hicks, of
Bullhide, and at the sound of his voice Jane Ann burst open the door at
the foot of the stairs and ran out to meet him.

"This here's the man you want to meet, I guess," panted the old
woman, desisting at length in her use of the poker. "Do ye want him
now, Mister?"

"Uncle Bill!" shrieked Jane Ann.

"Great cats!" cried the cattleman. "Is it Jane Ann herself? Is she
alive?"

The girl flung herself into the big man's arms. "I'm all right,
Uncle!" she cried, laughing and crying together. "And that man yonder
didn't hurt me--only kep' me on a desert island till Ruth and Tom and
Helen found me."

"Then he kin go!" declared Bill Hicks, turning suddenly as Crab started
through the door. "And here's what will help him!"

The Westerner swung his heavy boot with the best intention in the world
and caught Jack Crab just as he was going down the step. With a yell of
pain the fellow sailed through the air, landing at least ten feet from
the doorway. But he was up from his hands and knees and running hard in
an instant, and he ran so hard, and to such good purpose, that he ran
right out of this story then and there. Ruth Fielding and her friends
never saw the treacherous fellow again.

"But if he'd acted like he oughter," said Mr. Hicks, "and hadn't
put my Jane Ann out on that thar lonesome rock, and treated her the
way he done, I should have considered myself in his debt. I'd have
paid him the five hundred dollars, sure enough. I'd have paid it over
willingly if he'd left my gal with these nice people and only told me
whar she was. But I wouldn't give him a cent now--not even if he was
starvin'. For if I found him in that condition I'd see he got food and
not money," and the big man chuckled.

"So you haven't got to pay five hundred dollars for me, then, Uncle
Bill?" said his niece, as they sat on the porch of the Stones'
bungalow, talking things over.

"No, I haven't. No fault of yours, though, you little rascal. I dunno
but I ought to divide it 'twixt them three friends of yourn that found
y