Kate Crandall had not stirred from the sofa during the sensational scenes just enacted. They told her only too plainly that she was in the hands of knaves who would shrink from no desperate deed that would serve their ends, and she had no thought but to escape from them by any means she could command.
Blink Morgan hastened to liberate her, while Gridley seated himself directly in front of her and sternly said:
“You’ve got mighty few minutes, woman, to tell us what we want to know. We have others here who could tell us, but whose traps are tightly closed. We have not killed them, lest we might kill our golden goose; but understand this: We’ll end them and you, too, unless you give us the information which—”
Kate Crandall checked him with a haughty gesture.
“One moment, Mr. Gridley, if t
