A few steps further, and then the villainous abductor of Helen Dilt said:
"Here we are, sir!"
They had reached one corner of the cellar, and when McGinnis held up the light, Brown saw the fair young girl, stretched on a pallet of straw, which kindness even the cruel McGinnis had not been able to deny her.
"Is she dead?" asked Brown, in a hoarse whisper.
"I think not. She wasn't less than two hours ago when the old woman brought down some grub to her."
So very still did Helen lie that the lawyer thought she surely was dead, until having drawn very close it became evident that she was only sleeping.
Poor Helen!
It was the first time that her eyes had closed in slumber in the three days which had elapsed since she had been forcibly brought to this place.
Approached by McGinnis, he had told her some plausible story, and led her away from the more public thoroughfares, and then had suddenly turned on her, and putting a revolver to her head had threatened to kill her did she make any outcry.
He had hurried her into a "ranch" where he was known, had kept her there until after midnight, and then had forced her through the deserted streets to his own shanty.