“None whatever except that I happened to see him just before Joe disappeared. Philo Marsh is pretty closely connected with Larrimer and those other arch-knaves, Stiffbold and Lightly, just now; but of course it might have been any of the others.”
“What did you mean just now by saying that they might hope to strike at you through Joe?” asked Dorothy slowly, as though she were painstakingly trying to reason things out for herself. “I didn’t quite understand you, Garry.”
“That is only because you do not know my enemies, dear,” returned Garry. “Those fellows have done everything in their power to run me off my land. The longer I thwart them, the more determined they get. They are trying to force me to sell out for a song, sign my lands over to them.”
“But you won’t?” cried Dorothy.
“I guess not!” Garry’s eyes kindled and his fist clenched. “But it is possible that in this move—this kidnapping of the boy—they may hope to force me to something that they never could otherwise.”
“You mean,” said Dorothy slowly, “that if you agree to sign over your land to them at a ridiculous price they will release Joe?”
Garry nodded.
“And if you don’t agree?”
Garry’s face paled. Then he turned to Dorothy, caught her hands in his, gripping them fiercely.
“I promise you, Dorothy, that they shall never hurt Joe!”