It seems to me I have shown myself strangely weak--permitting you to do exactly as you pleased with me.

Yet you do not understand; it has not been wholly my own peril which caused me to surrender so easily." "But I think I do understand--it was partly a sacrifice for others." "In a way, yes, it was; but I cannot explain more fully, even to you, now.

Yet suppose I make this sacrifice, and it fails; suppose after all they should fall into the hands of these men ?" "I will not believe that," I protested, stoutly.

"I feel convinced they had warning--there is no other way in which to account for their disappearance, their failure to return to the house.

They must have encountered Pete and gone away with him." "If I only knew that." "Perhaps we can assure ourselves; we can go ashore at his place up the river, and if his boat is gone, there will be no longer any doubt.