Bailey knew nothing of the death gripping tendencies of the bog that lay so close to the farmer's house. He started toward it. "Then we must get them out," he shouted. "Is that them, out there," pointing to what seemed to be moving figures far in the distance. Grimes chuckled. "Thar hain't nawthin' on earth thet kin git 'em out," he drawled, as if the statement were a most delectable morsel. "Then I'll raise hell and get them out," thundered Bailey, "and you'll go after them, yourself. We've got to get back to the crossroads ahead of Wayne and we've got to have the child. He's coming to pay the ransom!" It was Peter's turn to rave. He did so, handsomely. Then he explained and demonstrated the impossibility of crossing the bog after the fleeing children. "How en hell they ever got acrost, beats me," he told Bailey. "Thet thar Mollie's plumb bewitched er sumpin'. She doan know nawthin' 'bout whar she's a-headin', but ef she keeps on a-goin' th' way she is now, she's bound ter come out some'eres aroun th' river road, not fur frum th' cross-roads. Hit's one chanst in a million." "That'll suit us," exclaimed Bailey, making flying leaps toward the automobile, which Swazey had already headed in the opposite direction. "Step on her, Bill." But they had forgotten Grimes. "Hey, whut erbout my thousand dollars?" he cried, springing upon the running board, with an agility never before attained by his twisted limbs. Bailey not replying, and the car going too fast for the door to be unfastened to permit him to enter, the farmer continued to cling to the running board from which, by way of retaliation upon Bailey, he roared back to where Maria and Ambrose stood in the open gateway: "Hyar, you-uns, don't stand thar a-gawpin. run--Sic th' dawg on them young-uns--Let 'im chaw 'em up!" CHAPTER XXIII PURSUED AND PURSUERS "He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare."--Jer. xlviii, 44 At the door of the bank Harris Wayne paused. Someone was calling to him. He turned to perceive the Chief's car pulling up to the curb just beyond his own. "Wait a minute, Mr. Wayne," called the Chief. "Don't draw that money, yet. I want to speak to you first." Wayne stepped back to the curb and, after hearing what the Chief had to say, dismissed his own car and stepped into the one in which the Chief and several of his men were seated. The man at the wheel threw in the clutch and the car shot ahead, making for the hill country where lay the Craddock farm. "The message came right after you left," said the Chief. "The boy's conscious. Weak but perfectly rational and eager to talk. I gave orders that he was to be kept quiet and do no talking until we got there. They're giving him nourishment and getting him ready. That Craddock woman is a good nurse. She can break up a fever, they say, quicker than most doctors."