“No,” she answered, weakly, “but I am so weak and hungry. They haven’t given me anything to eat or drink for more than a day. I suppose they have forgotten me. I am Estelle Bradley, sir. If you would only get word to my father! He is the Governor of Wenonah, and I know he would reward you!” “Don’t try to talk, Miss Bradley,” interrupted Patsy. He was stooping to cut the cords that bound her to the floor. When this was done, he helped her to her feet and then downstairs. On the way, he took the papers he had seen in the box, and put them in his pockets. She told him, when he explained that he was a detective, how she had been deceived by a message that was supposed to be sent by her lover, Cecil West. “It was handed to me during a party at my father’s house,” she said, “and it told me that Cecil was lying dangerously wounded not far away. I went at once to see him, and was seized by rough men, who brought me here and have kept me ever since.” Patsy took her to a hotel, where they had breakfast. Then, knowing nothing of Nick’s journey to the West, he arranged for taking her home. They started on a train that left Helena just as Nick and Dinsmore returned after a successful chase of the ruffians. It had taken them most of the night, but they had rescued the governor and caught three of the gang, though Hamilton, the leader, had escaped. Leonard had been shot through the heart by the leader when it came to the last fight out in the hills miles beyond Helena. The governor confessed bitterly that he and Leonard had been engaged in a business that could not be called quite square years before. “For my reputation,” said the governor, “I had to keep certain papers, and Leonard wanted them, fearing that I would give them up some time, and so ruin him. We feared each other. “So he hired a band of ruffians to steal the papers. They not only stole mine, but, without knowing it, a number of government documents, also. Then, to make a complete job of it, they kidnaped my daughter. “I dared not trust my secrets to the police, or to you, Mr. Carter. When Leonard found that the ruffians would not give up the papers without an immense ransom, that he was unable to pay, he told me what he had done. It was for the interest of both of us to keep the matter dark, and he thought he could drive a bargain with the thieves. “So I got together all the cash I could and we tried it. “We went from city to city, but whether Leonard saw the leader anywhere, I do not know. At last, I told him I should give the matter to Nick Carter. “Leonard threatened to kill me if I did so. He nearly succeeded, as, perhaps, you know. At last, he said we should find that gang in Helena, and that by this time they would be willing to come to my terms—forty thousand dollars—their first bid having been for a hundred thousand. “We came to Helena, Leonard taking a different route from Chicago, in order to give the word to the gang, who, he said, were mostly at the North.