On the floor, distant a couple of yards, lay the shawl that Virginia had let fall from her nerveless arm when Rutley entered the room. He wriggled the chair toward it, and by extending his foot drew the shawl to his grasp.
It was a summer shawl, of generous proportions. The fabric was silk-wool mixture, of fine network weave, and consequently light and strong. Twisting it into a rope he bound her arms and limbs, meantime saying in a low, guarded voice, and with the utmost sauvity and coolness:
“I’ll not be ruder or rougher than is necessary, my beauty. There! Now you are secure. I could even kiss those red, ripe cherry lips without fear of protest, but I’ll not contaminate them by contact with those of a blackguard. No, no! Don’t thank me for that, honey dear, for I’m content to witness your mute appreciation of my motive.”
After he had bound her, he drew back a pace or two and critically surveyed his work.
“You must pardon me, dear heart, for deeming it prudent to make that gag a little more secure,” and taking a handkerchief from his pocket he bound it over her mouth, knotting the ends at the back of her head. “Rest assured, brave little girl,” he resumed, in that same low, hissing voice, “I’m not a sneak thief, a burglar or a rake, though I do aspire to membership in that proud and great American order ‘The Honorable Grafter’.”
Having completed gagging her, he stood off a pace and chuckled. “There, I think that will do!”
In the silence that followed Rutley was startled to hear a low, cautious voice on the lawn below say: “He is either in the house or up there in the timber.”
“They’ve tracked me here,” Rutley viciously hissed, his manner changed to intense alertness. He grasped the revolver and went on, “While I have been dallying with you, precious time was lost, damn you! I’ll see that you don’t stand between me and liberty again!”
Virginia was again terrified and helpless at a moment when aid of the most determined and daring character was within call.
Then a second voice said: “The officers do be kapin’ a lookout down be the river, and if he’s in the water, sure they’ll nab him. D’yees think he’d likely be up on the hill top in the brush?”