"You will let me go now, Mr. Hiltze, please. But tell Marie that I understand everything, and when she wishes to come back to me, the Cote is open. It was only a mistaken loyalty to a wrong principle. Please go, I want to hurry home." He laughed a little. "Eveley, you are going to South America with me." In a sudden panic she turned, flinging open the door of the car, hoping to rush away into the darkness, but his arm held her. "You will love me. I may not care for your Americanization, but I love you. I am going to be good to you. Don't be a fool, Eveley, it will do you no good. You've got to go." Struggling was in vain, as Eveley realized at once, and she subsided quickly, trying to think. The thing was impossible. It could not be. Such things did not happen any more--not in real life in the United States. It was cruel, preposterous, unbelievable. "Please let me go," she pleaded. "I shall not try to report you, you can get away without trouble. But let me go home, please. I could never change toward you--I am not the kind that changes." "I shall have to tie you for a few minutes. I am sorry, but I do not wish you to go to the shack. I have wasted a lot of time trying to reason with you. Put out your hands--yes yes, that way, and let me tie them to the wheel. I hate to do this--there is no use for you to yell, Eveley, for no one can hear, so I shall not gag you. Let me wrap the blanket about you; it is very cold. Sit still, dear, and do not shake it off. I love you very much. We are going to start the world afresh with a clean slate, and leave the past behind. The future shall be of your choosing, only it must be with me." Then he went away, and Eveley began a valiant tugging on the straps that bound her. "Wait a minute, Eveley, I'll cut them," came a friendly whisper, and Eveley with a cry turned to look into Angelo's face. "Sure, I come along," he said. "I saw him up at the house, and when he came down for you, I followed his taxi on my bike. And when he went in to get you, I got into the back under the rugs. Lucky he only took one rug for you, or he'd got hold of my legs. Gee, he uses good straps." All this, while Angelo was sawing on the straps with his rusty knife, and almost before he finished talking, Eveley was free. Like a flash she was starting the engine. "Suppose you get out and hide a while, and let me scout around," he said. "I hate to leave a decent sort like your Marie with those cutthroats. Maybe I can get hold of her." "Yes, do try. I'll hide among the bushes for fear they come while you are gone. Be careful, Angelo. We are going to need you." Eveley waited what seemed an endless length of time, crouching almost breathless under the shrubs. But finally she heard light running steps, and in a moment Marie was in her arms.