as if her head were about to burst. Then as the thumping in her ears
almost completed the deadening of her auditory nerves, she
indistinctly heard these words uttered in a hoarse voice:

"Look out, Bill; don't kill her."

As if surprised back into his senses, "Bill" loosened his hold on
Helen's throat. She did not struggle or attempt to cry out again.
Evidently the purpose of the ruffians did not contemplate murder, and
she realized that there was no wisdom in anything but submission on
her part now.

But she was not given time to recover completely before the next move
of her captors was made. While one of them held her in a vise-like
grip, the other shoved a gag into her mouth and tied the attached
strings tightly around the base of her head. Then he bound her hands
together in front of her with a strip of cloth.

"There," said the man whom the other had addressed as Bill, "you set
down in that chair and keep still and you won't get hurt. But the
instant you go to makin' any racket you're liable to breathe your
last. All right, Jake, go and get the machine."

"Jake!" The exclamation, though not uttered, was real enough in her
mind. Even with the deafening pulse of choking confusion in her head,
it had seemed that there was something familiar in the man's voice
when he warned "Bill" not to kill her. Was it possible that this was
Mr. Stanlock's former automobile driver?

Jake went out the back way, closing the door between the front room