Mrs. Smithers shrunk to the side of her husband, as if to demand that protection which she nevertheless knew he could not afford to give her. Smithers, however, ventured to lower one of his arms, which he put around her waist. Scarcely had he done so than a bullet whizzed over his head. "What did I tell you?" cried the captain. "Up with that hand!" He was fain to do as he was told, and the hand was removed from his wife's waist, to point once more toward the sky. Ben, as the captain had called his companion, now seized Mrs. Smithers by the arm. She resisted his attention, and uttered scream after scream; but her strength was unavailing to cope with the superior force of the ruffian, and she was gradually dragged from the spot toward one of the cavernous recesses formed in the rocks to which we have previously alluded. When she had finally disappeared from view, the captain turned his gaze upon Smithers. "Are these two all your children?" he inquired. "Yes," replied Smithers. "That is, my wife had a child by a former husband, a sort of vagabond fellow, and----" "What do you say?" cried the captain, his eyes flashing angrily through his mask. "I beg your pardon, sir, if he is any friend of yours; but the man pretended to be dead; he turned up, however, and is now, I am informed, in prison." "So that woman is not your wife?" "I account her so, because we all thought this Thompson dead." "If her first husband lives, as you state, she belongs to him, as does the child." "The child is a soft creature, and he is welcome to him, if he can find him, though it would be difficult to do so, as he has gone on a trip to Europe." "Go!" exclaimed the captain; "I shall not touch your stores or your money, on condition that you say nothing about being robbed when you reach Silver City." Smithers was silent. "What!" cried the robber, angrily; "will you not purchase your life and your property at so cheap a price?" "I want my wife, whom you have no right to detain. Take all I have, and give me her!" exclaimed Smithers. "By your own admission, all you are entitled to are these children," said the captain. "Do you comply with my conditions, or shall I shoot you where you stand?" "No, no!" exclaimed Smithers, shrinking back from the uplifted pistol. "Life is sweet! life is precious!" "Swear!" "I do!" "Then get along with your wagon and your brats. Recollect that if anyone breaks faith with me, I will follow him to the end of the world and square accounts with him." "You shall have no cause." "Git!" said the captain, in a contemptuous tone. Harold and Alice once more climbed into the wagon and Smithers caused the oxen to resume their journey. He was glad to have escaped so easily, but he felt very mean and contemptible when he thought that he had allowed his wife to be carried off before his eyes without raising a finger to help her. CHAPTER XVII. KILLED BY HIS FATHER.