"I'll not be ruder or rougher than is necessary, my beauty. There! Now you are secure. I could even kiss those red, ripe cherry lips without fear of protest, but I'll not contaminate them by contact with those of a blackguard. No, no! Don't thank me for that, honey dear, for I'm content to witness your mute appreciation of my motive." After he had bound her, he drew back a pace or two and critically surveyed his work. "You must pardon me, dear heart, for deeming it prudent to make that gag a little more secure," and taking a handkerchief from his pocket he bound it over her mouth, knotting the ends at the back of her head. "Rest assured, brave little girl," he resumed, in that same low, hissing voice, "I'm not a sneak thief, a burglar or a rake, though I do aspire to membership in that proud and great American order 'The Honorable Grafter'." Having completed gagging her, he stood off a pace and chuckled. "There, I think that will do!" In the silence that followed Rutley was startled to hear a low, cautious voice on the lawn below say: "He is either in the house or up there in the timber." "They've tracked me here," Rutley viciously hissed, his manner changed to intense alertness. He grasped the revolver and went on, "While I have been dallying with you, precious time was lost, damn you! I'll see that you don't stand between me and liberty again!" Virginia was again terrified and helpless at a moment when aid of the most determined and daring character was within call. Then a second voice said: "The officers do be kapin' a lookout down be the river, and if he's in the water, sure they'll nab him. D'yees think he'd likely be up on the hill top in the brush?" "I cannot say," replied the first voice, "but it looks to me as though he could not have crossed that open space unseen." Both of the men had spoken in low and serious tones and were recognized by the intent listeners in the room above as Sam and Smith. They were evidently baffled and in a quandary as to the direction Rutley had taken after escape from the officer, and approached the house to warn the servants of Rutley's escape. "Maybees," resumed Smith in the same low, cautious voice, "he whint up the hill be way ave the ravine, over beyant there." Sam made no reply. He had caught sight of the profile of Virginia's face. Her eyes, terrified and tensely drawn, were askance and looking in his direction. The handkerchief over her mouth he first mistook as an evidence of physical suffering. He stepped back a pace, thinking to obtain a better view. He was disappointed. What he had seen was a reflection of her face in the "dresser mirror," that by some strange chance had been adjusted at an angle which deflected objects downward. He had aimlessly halted at a point directly in line of the reflection cast by the mirror over the casement, and upon looking up saw through the screened window the reflection.