"There!" gasped Tavia. "There's his hat. I grabbed it when he put the
handkerchief, with some stuff on it, to my nose," and the girl held up a
gray slouch hat, the kind western men usually wear.

"That may help us," said Ralph. "But first you must both come down to
the drug store. That stuff he used may sicken you. It has a queer
smell."

Once on their feet the girls seemed all right, in fact as Tavia said,
they had only "made believe" to prevent any further violence.

It seemed incredible that two girls should be way-laid in broad
daylight, in the hall of the most public building in Dalton, but the
fact was certainly plain--there was the dirty white handkerchief reeking
with some drug, and besides, there was the hat that Tavia had taken from
the man's head.

Ralph took the girls into the prescription room of the drug store, to
see if they needed any attention, and there to the astonished drug
clerk, as well as to the equally astonished proprietor, Tavia tried to
relate what had happened.

"It was the same man who grabbed my papers the other day," she said. "I
saw him first as I came along William street. Joe and Roger had just
gone in Beck's with their papers, and as I saw the man watching them I
was afraid he might kidnap Roger. I was just thinking who would be best
to call, when he caught me watching him, and then, like a flash, he
sprang into that saloon at the corner. I thought he was frightened lest
he would be caught, and I hurried down here to warn Dorothy. Well, no
sooner had I put my foot inside the hall than he darted at me--"