Page:Jackson Gregory--joyous trouble maker.djvu/333

Rh She loved Bill Steele, though she had not been willing to admit it, though she had not even seen it clearly. She had wanted him to hold her in his arms tonight, she had wanted him to kiss her; for one stinging-sweet second she had closed her eyes blissfully and lived to the uttermost with his lips on hers.

"Bill Steele," she whispered softly. "I love you!"

They had turned toward the east, headed toward Camp Corliss. Were they taking her to Summit City or on beyond? Questions to be asked but not answered For at last her eyes were blindfolded and she knew that the car had circled and circled in a meadow and now might be retracing its way or travelling on eastward. And then, with eyes still blinded, she was forced to step to the ground, to mount a horse, to ride where there was but an uneven trail underfoot. She heard the automobile speeding away behind her. And she knew that now at last there was but one man with her. A man who silently took her horse's reins, who rudely forced her hand away from the band about her eyes, who was spurring on at her side through the mountains.

Then came back her fear in resurging waves. What sign would there be left behind that her friends could follow? How far would the brutality of her captor go? Where was the end of it all for Beatrice Corliss?

Mile after mile they went and no longer could she guess even vaguely where. They rode through brush which whipped at her feet; they made a slow way down many a steep slope; they mounted slowly to other