The other man shouted now, his words coming more faintly as the distance increased. ‘You Tibbie! You Tibbie Liscomb, you come right back here! If you don’t I’ll tell your mother the minute――’ The rest was lost in the noise of the engine and the steady thud of the propeller. Pud scowled questioningly at the girl crouched beside him. ‘What’s he call you Tibbie for?’ he demanded suspiciously. ‘And how’s he going to tell your ma if――’ ‘He does it to humiliate me,’ answered the girl bitterly. ‘They both called me Tibbie. Ah, well, it’s over now!’ She sighed deeply and turned a look of gratitude on Pud. ‘My preserver!’ she whispered. ‘Had it not been for you, who knows what awful fate were mine! Never, never can I thank you enough, my brave――’ ‘Aw, cut it,’ growled Pud. ‘And you’d better wipe the end of your nose. You’ve got engine grease on it.’ CHAPTER IX PURSUIT The shanty-boat, the sagging wharf, and the waving men grew small in the distance. The forest closed in once more. At last the clearing passed from sight as the launch, chugging determinedly, rounded a shadowed bend in the river. Pud and Tim sighed with relief. Harmon, as solemn as an owl, perched on the stern and stared curiously at Gladys Ermintrude. The girl, preparatory to her flight, had somehow struggled into a very tight sweater of a deep orange shade which, beyond the shadow of a doubt, harmonized sadly with her tanned face and copper-hued hair. She had brought with her an ancient satchel encompassed, at one end, by a rusty-black strap and at the other a piece of clothes-line. It was the satchel that again aroused Pud’s sleeping suspicions. ‘Say, if you were kidnaped,’ he asked, ‘how’d you happen to bring all your clothes along with you?’ ‘Sakes alive!’ exclaimed Gladys Ermintrude. ‘Why, those aren’t _all_ my clothes! Why, I’ve just got a few simple things in the bag, hardly a change of attire.’ ‘Just the same,’ persisted Pud, ‘if you were kidnaped――’ ‘Gosh,’ expostulated Tim, who, being somewhat susceptible to feminine charm, chivalrously disapproved of Pud’s incredulous attitude, ‘why wouldn’t she take some duds with her?’ ‘Well, because as a usual thing kidnaped folks don’t have time to pack bags. When you kidnap a person, you just grab him quick and throw him into a――an automobile and beat it!’ ‘You don’t understand,’ said Gladys Ermintrude in a somewhat superior manner that increased Pud’s growing dislike. ‘You see, they came for me when I was all alone in the house, and after they had bound me up and thrown me helpless on――on the floor――’ ‘Gosh!’ muttered Tim. Harmon chortled, whether from horror or delight it would have been difficult to say.