"Are you mad, Fan? The boy has us in his power unless he is done up. Strike him and get it over with, do you hear me!" "I can't," returned the woman, almost pathetically. "He reminds me of----" "Blast your squeamishness! You will ruin us." "We must adopt other means to silence him till we are safe," she said. She looked feverishly about the room. Her eyes rested on a small bottle on the mantel. Flinging the slungshot down, she bounded over and seized it. Tearing a lace handkerchief from her bosom, she dashed some of the contents of the bottle on it. In the meantime the struggle between Dick and the man was renewed. Patterson succeeded in pulling the boy over on the rug again. As he held him there, the woman slipped over, threw her weight on Dick's side and pressed the handkerchief over his face. Dick struggled desperately, for he knew he was being drugged, but he had not the ghost of a show. "It is better this way, Jim," she said. "Oh, why did he come here? Why did he come?" "What's the matter with you?" growled Patterson, allowing matters to take their course. "What interest have you in that boy?" "I don't know, indeed I don't; but he is a nice boy, and he looks so like my brother!" she faltered. "Oh, hang your brother! What has your brother got to do with him?" As Dick's struggles ceased the woman lifted the handkerchief. The boy was unconscious. "Look at him, Jim; isn't he a handsome boy? And he treated me at the store as if I were a real lady." Jim Patterson, if his name really was Patterson, which seemed doubtful after what had happened, uttered an imprecation as he got up. "Now, then, you soft-hearted thing, go and find a piece of line for me to tie him with," he said. "You won't do anything to him while I'm gone, will you, Jim?" she said anxiously. "Why should I? He's down and out now for six or eight hours, which will give us time to skip. There's nothing in the house, except our trunks and duds that belong to us, for we took the place furnished. When the servant returns in the morning she'll find the boy and liberate him. By that time we'll be a long way on our way West. We have cleaned up quite a stake since we've been here, and can live on Easy street for a while. I'm afraid I made a mistake in pulling off this last trick. There isn't enough in it for the risk we ran. You ought to have bought more diamonds while you were about it." "I was afraid to buy too much lest it should have excited suspicion," she said. "We won't quarrel over it. Go and get the line."