CHAPTER XVIII
KIDNAPPED
"Oh! Where am I?"
"Hush! You are safe! But keep very quiet."
Then Cora forgot—something smelled so strong, and she felt so sleepy.
"We are almost there!"
"But see the lights!"
"They will never turn into the gully!"
"If they do——"
"I'll——"
"Hush!"
"She is a strong girl!"
"So much the better. Give her a drink."
"I don't like it."
"You don't have to."
"Do you know what they do now with kidnappers?"
"She's no kid."
"But it's just the same."
"Hold your tongue. You have given me more bother than she has."
"Salvo deserved what he got."
"You deserve something, too," and the older woman, speaking to a young girl, gave the latter a blow with a whip. The girl winced, and showed her white teeth. She would some day break away from Mother Hull.
They were riding in a gypsy wagon through the mountains, and it was one hour after Cora Kimball had been taken away from the porch of the Tip-Top. The drivers of the wagon were the most desperate members of the North Woods gypsy clan, and they had not the slightest fear that the searchers, who were actually almost flashing their lights in to the very wagon that bore Cora away, could ever discover her whereabouts.
It was close and ill-smelling in that van. Cora was not altogether unconscious, and she turned uneasily on the bundle of straw deep in the bottom of the big wagon.
"She is waking," said the girl presently.
"She can now, if she's a mind to. We are in Dusky Hollow."
"I won't be around when she does awake. I don't like it."
"If you say any more, I'll give you a dose. Maybe you—want—to go—to sleep."
"When I want to I shall," and the black eyes flashed in the darkness.
"We did not promise to——"
"Shut up!" and again that whip rang like the whisper of some frightened tree.
"Oh, stop!" yelled the girl, "or I shall——"
"Oh, no, you—won't. You just hold—your tongue."
The horses shied, and the wagon skidded. Were they held up?
"Right there, Sam," ordered the driver. "Easy—steady, Ned. Pull over here."
The wagons moved forward again, and the women felt that the possible danger of discovery had passed.
"Keep quiet in there," called a rough voice from the seat. "These woods are thick with trailers."
For some time no one within the van spoke. Then Cora turned, and the woman wearing the thick hood clapped something over Cora's nose.
"Oh, don't! She has had enough. Let her at least live," begged the younger woman, actually fanning Cora's white face with her own soiled handkerchief.
The night seemed blacker and darker at each turn. Shouts from the searchers occasionally reached the ears of those within the wagon, and once Mr. Rand on his donkey might have seen them but for the trickery of the driver, who pulled his horses into some shadowy bushes and waited for the searchers to pass.
The young gypsy woman peered down into Cora's face.
"She's pretty," she said, with some sympathy.
"Well, by the time she's out perhaps she won't be so pretty," sneered the older woman. "I swore revenge for Salvo, and I'll have it."
"Oh, you and Salvo! Seems to me a man ought to be able——"
"You cat! Do you want to go back to the cave?"
The girl was silent again.
"Where—am I? Jack! Jack!" Cora moaned.
"Here! Don't you dare give her another drop of that stuff, or
I'll—squeal!"
The old woman stopped, and in the darkness of the wagon Mother Hull felt, rather than saw, that the younger one would do as she threatened. She might shout! Then those searching the woods would hear.
"We will soon be there. Then she may call for Jack until her throat is sore!" muttered the hag.
Cora tossed on her bed of straw. The chloroform kept her quiet, but she knew and felt that she was being borne away somewhere into that dark and lonely night. She could remember now how Ed had gone inside the hotel, and he had not come back! He would be back presently, and yes, she would try to sleep until he returned!
She moaned and tried to call, but her voice was like that strange struggle of sound that comes in nightmare. It means nothing except to the sleeper.
"She's choking," said the gypsy girl.
"Let her," replied Mother Hull. "We can dump her easily here."
"You—hag!" almost screamed the girl. "I will shout if you don't give her air."
"Here! here!" called a voice from the seat. "If you two can't keep quiet, you know what we can do!"
"She's choking!" insisted the girl.
"Let her!" mocked the man.
"I—won't. Help! Help!" yelled the girl, and as she did the light of a powerful automobile lamp was directed into the gypsy wagon!
"There they are!" could be heard plainly.
"Where?" asked the anxious ones.
"In the gulch! Head them off! I saw a wagon!"
Quicker than any one save a mountaineer knew how to swing around, that wagon swerved, turned and was again lost in the darkness.
"Thought they had us!" called the man from the seat. "Lena, you will pay for this!"