"Not so quick as I can pull the trigger!" said Edith--her eyes blazing with the sense of having fate--the worst of fate in her own hands; it was but a pressure of the finger, to be made quick as lightning, and she was beyond their power! Her finger was on the trigger--the muzzle of the pistol, a cold ring of steel, pressed her burning temple! She felt it kindly--protective as a friend's kiss! "Seize her! Seize her, curse you!" cried the brutal Thorg, "what care I whether she pull the trigger or not? Before the blood cools in her body, I will have had my satisfaction! Seize her, you infernal--" "Captain, countermand your order! I beg, I entreat you, countermand your order! You yourself will greatly regret having given it, when you are calmer," said a young officer, riding hastily forward, and now, for the first time, taking a part in the scene. An honorable youth in a band of licensed military marauders. "'Sdeath, sir! Don't interfere with me! Seize her, rascals!" "One step more, and I pull the trigger!" said Edith. "Captain Thorg! This must not be!" persisted the young officer. "D--n, sir! Do you oppose me? Do you dare? Fall back, sir, I command you! Scoundrels! close upon that wench and bind her!" "Captain Thorg! This shall not be! Do you hear? Do you understand? I say this violence shall not be perpetrated!" said the young officer, firmly. "D--n, sir! Are you drunk, or mad? You are under arrest, sir! Corporal Truman, take Ensign Shields' sword!" The young man was quickly disarmed, and once more the captain vociferated: "Knock down and disarm that vixen! Obey your orders, villains! Or by h--l, and all its fiends, I'll have you all court-martialed, and shot before to-morrow noon!" The soldiers closed around the unprotected girl. "Lord, all merciful! forgive my sins," she prayed, and with a firm hand pulled the trigger! It did not respond to her touch--it failed! it failed! Casting the traitorous weapon from her, she sunk upon her knees, murmuring: "Lost--lost--all is lost!" remained crushed, overwhelmed, awaiting her fate! "Ha! ha! ha! as pretty a little make-believe as ever I saw!" laughed the brutal Thorg, now perfectly at his ease, and gloating over her beauty, and helplessness, and, deadly terror. "As pretty a little sham as ever I saw!" "It was no sham! She couldn't sham! I drawed out the shot unbeknownst to her! I wish, I does, my fingers had shriveled and dropped off afore they ever did it!" exclaimed Oliver, in a passion of remorse, as he ran forward, rake in hand. He was quickly thrown down and disarmed--no one had any hesitation in dealing with him. "Now then, my fair!" said Thorg, moving toward his victim. Edith was now wild with desperation--her eyes flew wildly around in search of help, where help there seemed none. Then she turned with the frenzied impulse of flying. But the men surrounded to cut off her retreat.