The Perils of Pauline Part 56

In a moment, though, her mind was set at rest on this point. For Rocco, the young bandit, turning to the man next him, asked: "What does it mean? What are they doing?"

"It is a circus train," answered the man. "They are loading the beasts into the cars."

Pauline felt the machine swerve sharply and evidently take to a by-road, for she could hear the swish of leaves on overhanging branches as they brushed through.

"This place will do," she heard Wrentz say. "Now, be quick about it."

"It has come," breathed Pauline to herself. "This is the place where I am to die."

Through her mind, in piteous pageant, flashed thoughts of home, of Harry, of even Raymond Owen. There was a great loneliness in the hour of doom. But it would be over quickly. She shut her eyes tight and clenched her tied hands as the trunk was taken from the machine and placed upon the ground.

"Open it," commanded Wrentz. "I don't want her to die in there."

The men quickly unclamped the locks and lifted Pauline out.

"Take off the ropes and the bandages," ordered Wrentz.

"Take them off? Why, she'll scream," exclaimed one.

"If she does you may choke her to death in the car," replied Wrentz.

"Why not here?" asked the oldest of the men. "Didn't Mr. --"

"Hush your mouth! You confounded rascal!" Wrentz screamed. "Are you going to mention that name here?"

"What harm--as long as she is to die? Dead women tell no more tales than dead men."

"I will name all names that are to be spoken," declared Wrentz.

"Well, he of the name that is unspoken--at least he did say that we must have no delays. We want to earn our money as well as you, Louis --remember that."

"Come, come," he said. "This is no way to be arguing among friends.

You'll get your money all right; but there is one thing to remember-you ain't get it except through me. So let me handle the matter. Put the girl in the car."

Pauline, although her bonds had been cut away, was unable to rise to her feet. They lifted her to her feet. She took a step or two, while they watched her curiously. Quickly strength and self-control came back to her. With a sudden spring, she struck at Wrentz with her fist, and as he drew back, astonished she darted across the roadway toward the wood.

It was but a futile, maneuver. She had gone but a few paces when she was gripped from behind and s.n.a.t.c.hed back.

"You see, Louis--I told you she would do something of the kind," said the old bandit.

"And I told you it would do no harm. Place her in the car between you and Rocco. If she screams or makes a move to get away you may do as you wish, but not until then."

Pauline still struggled feebly as she was lifted into the machine.

Wrentz kicked the empty trunk to the side of the byroad and took the wheel again. He drove back to the main drive that skirted the railroad.

Distant as they were by now, the clamor of the caged beasts in the circus train could still be heard. To Pauline the creatures seemed less wild and cruel than these, her human captors.

Wrentz put on even greater speed than he had ventured before. Two policemen, Burgess and Blount, of the Motorcycle Squad, were standing by their wheels in the roadway when the sound of the car's rush reached their ears from half a mile away.

"By George, that fellow's coming some," exclaimed Blount.

"And looks as if he wasn't going to stop," said the other. "Halt!

Halt, there!" he commanded, as the machine flashed up in a mantle of dust.

"They are coming, Louis," said one of the men.

"I know they are. But there is no machine made that can catch this one. Have your guns ready, though. In case they begin to fire, pick them off."

Pauline shuddered at the matter-of-fact way in which Rocco and the man on the other side drew their heavy pistols from their hip pockets and rested them on their knees.

"Do you see the girl in that car?" yelled Burgess to his companion over the din of their streaking machines.

"Yes. We want that party for more than speeding, I guess," answered Blount. They bent low over their handle-bars and raced on.

"If he takes the 'S' curve like that we've got him--dead or alive,"

said Burgess.

"And it looks as if he would. By George, he is!"

Wrentz's car had shot suddenly out of sight around a twist in the road. Wrentz was an able driver, and, even at its terrific speed, the machine took the first turn gracefully. But Wrentz had not counted on a second shorter turn to the opposite direction. And he worked the wheel madly for a second swerve; the huge car skidded, spun round, and, reeling on two wheels for an instant, turned over in the ditch.

It was several moments before Pauline opened her eyes. She shut them quickly and staggered to her feet shuddering--she had been lying across Rocco's dead body which had broken her fall and saved her life.

Two other men lay motionless in the road. But from under the overturned car there came a sound, and Pauline realized, with quick alarm, that Wrentz was still alive. She ran across the road and into the parked woods that hid the railroad from the drive.

Wrentz struggled out from beneath the car. His eyes swept swiftly from the bodies of his dead comrades to the form of Pauline just vanis.h.i.+ng in the thicket. He was bruised and bleeding, but with the instinct of a beast of prey he followed his quarry.

"Dead or alive was right," said Burgess, jumping from his wheel and examining the bodies in the road. "I wonder what that fellow was up to. And where is the girl?"

"I saw her and one of the men make into the park there," said Blount.

"You take charge here and I'll go after them."

As he moved into the thicket in the direction Pauline had taken young Blount's attention was attracted by a new commotion. The park was on the crest of a steep cliff overlooking the railroad tracks and from the tracks came a riot of voices. Blount forced his way through the wood to a viewpoint from the cliff. Below him a score of men were moving rapidly along the tracks in wide, open order, evidently bent on some sort of a hunt.

"The circus men," said Blount to himself. "An animal must have got out. This is certainly some day for business."

He turned back to the work in hand.

Pauline, spurred by terror as she realized that Wrentz was again upon her trail, had sped like a wild thing through the park paths. She could hear the heavy footsteps of her pursuer close behind. She could hear also a shouting from afar off. She made toward the shouting-- the sound of any voice but the voices of the inhuman men who had planned her death was welcome to her ears.

She came out upon the cliff where it sloped steeply to the railroad yards, but not too steeply to prevent her descending. From her position, the lines of freight cars cut off from her vision the strange group of hunters who were shouting. Running, stumbling, creeping, clutching at small bushes, she scrambled down the cliff.

"Stop and come back!" she heard a menacing voice behind her. She sped on the faster.

A line of high bushes fringed the bottom of the cliff. Between the bushes and the first rails ran a ditch. Sheltered from all view from above, Pauline dragged herself along this ditch, seeking a hiding place. She knew her strength was almost gone. She was in terror of fainting. If she could hide somewhere and rest--

A single empty freight car stood on the outer track a hundred yards away. Its open door offered the only means of concealment that she had. She believed that the bushes were high enough still to s.h.i.+eld her while she climbed into the car.

In this she was wrong. Wrentz, watching from above--for he was afraid of the voices on the tracks, below and had not followed Pauline --watched with pleasure as she crawled to the side of the car, and, after two failures, managed to drag herself through the high door. She sank exhausted. Gradually, however, her strength returned. Her mind recovered from the dazing experiences of the last few hours. She began to gain courage and to plan her further flight.