Jess of the Rebel Trail

by H. A. Cody

SHAKESPEARE

"When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect."

THOMAS PAINE

"Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weakness."

MADAME DU DEFFAND

JESS OF THE REBEL TRAIL

CHAPTER I

THE HOLD-UP

The glowing coals in the spacious grate seemed to fascinate the woman as she sat huddled in a big luxurious chair. The book she had been reading was lying open and unheeded on her lap. Her surroundings were by no means in keeping with her dejected manner. The room was cosy and lavishly furnished, while the shaded electric reading-lamp cast its gentle radiance upon the woman's white hair and soft evening-gown. It was a rough night, and the wind howling outside beat furiously against the closely-blinded windows.

It was a night such as this, nearly twenty years before, of which the woman was thinking. She was once again in a room in a private hospital, lying weak and helpless from the ordeal through which she had passed. It all came back to her now with a stinging intensity, causing her white hands to clench hard, and her eyes to widen with a nameless fear.