"You will let me go now, Mr. Hiltze, please. But tell Marie that I understand everything, and when she wishes to come back to me, the Cote is open. It was only a mistaken loyalty to a wrong principle. Please go, I want to hurry home."

He laughed a little. "Eveley, you are going to South America with me."

In a sudden panic she turned, flinging open the door of the car, hoping to rush away into the darkness, but his arm held her.

"You will love me. I may not care for your Americanization, but I love you. I am going to be good to you. Don't be a fool, Eveley, it will do you no good. You've got to go."

Struggling was in vain, as Eveley realized at once, and she subsided quickly, trying to think. The thing was impossible. It could not be. Such things did not happen any more--not in real life in the United States. It was cruel, preposterous, unbelievable.

"Please let me go," she pleaded. "I shall not try to report you, you can get away without trouble. But let me go home, please. I could never change toward you--I am not the kind that changes."

"I shall have to tie you for a few minutes. I am sorry, but I do not wish you to go to the shack. I have wasted a lot of time trying to reason with you. Put out your hands--yes yes, that way, and let me tie them to the wheel. I hate to do this--there is no use for you to yell, Eveley, for no one can hear, so I shall not gag you. Let me wrap the blanket about you; it is very cold. Sit still, dear, and do not shake it off. I love you very much. We are going to start the world afresh with a clean slate, and leave the past behind. The future shall be of your choosing, only it must be with me."

Then he went away, and Eveley began a valiant tugging on the straps that bound her.

"Wait a minute, Eveley, I'll cut them," came a friendly whisper, and Eveley with a cry turned to look into Angelo's face.

"Sure, I come along," he said. "I saw him up at the house, and when he came down for you, I followed his taxi on my bike. And when he went in to get you, I got into the back under the rugs. Lucky he only took one rug for you, or he'd got hold of my legs. Gee, he uses good straps."

All this, while Angelo was sawing on the straps with his rusty knife, and almost before he finished talking, Eveley was free.

Like a flash she was starting the engine.

"Suppose you get out and hide a while, and let me scout around," he said.

"I hate to leave a decent sort like your Marie with those cutthroats.

Maybe I can get hold of her."

"Yes, do try. I'll hide among the bushes for fear they come while you are gone. Be careful, Angelo. We are going to need you."

Eveley waited what seemed an endless length of time, crouching almost breathless under the shrubs. But finally she heard light running steps, and in a moment Marie was in her arms.

"Oh, my poor child, they told me you wanted to go. And did they tie you--the cruel straps? You are free now, and you will go back to your Cote and be happy. But do not forget your poor Marie. And never play with fire again, sweet; in the end it always burns. American women never know what a tempest love can be. Now, kiss Marie, and say your forgive her, and then go quickly."

"Marie, come with me," begged Eveley, clinging to her. "You must not go with them. They are treacherous, selling their honor for money. Do not trust them. Come with me. Nolan and I will take care of you, and Nolan will straighten out your tangles with the law. And Jimmy is wild for you, raging all over town trying to find you. Please, dear, let all the ugly past lie dead, and live a new life with us here. Oh, I can not let you go."

"For them I care nothing," Marie cried, with a smart snap of her fingers.

"They are dogs. They only help us for money, and they wish only to embroil the world in war. It is no love for us--but they are cheap--we buy them. When the time comes, we tramp them under our feet. Eveley, if you wish me, I will come."

Then in a moment they were away, the car swinging dizzily down the steep grade rocking from side to side.

"How did you get Marie, Angelo--you angel?" asked Eveley, after a while.

"They were all running around moving things, and Marie was helping. So I pitched in and helped too. When I walked by Marie she understood and came. And they did not notice. There isn't much difference between a Wop and a Greaser."

"And you will never leave me again, Marie?"

"I am all through with hatred and strife, now. I want only a home, where I can be happy, and live as you and I have lived. That is the only Americanization. Talk is nothing. Social service is a game. But when one makes living so fine that every one in the world wants to live that way--then it is Americanization. I am satisfied now."

"Say, you'd better cut the talk and watch the road," said Angelo suddenly. "You've been half over the grade a dozen times."

"Yes, I will," promised Eveley. "But I must hurry. They will follow us--will they follow us, Marie?"

"Oh, surely, when they miss us. They have motorcycles. Listen. Hear them far back? Of course they would follow."

"Sit tight, Marie, and do not worry. I know this road all right."

"They are gaining on us, dear. Can you do better?"

But Eveley was afraid to go faster on those sharp curves, though she strained her eyes to see the road before them.

"We are nearly to Flynn Springs," she said. "We must be. We can stop there."

"They will soon be up with us," said Angelo, looking back.

"We must leave the car, and hide in the woods," said Marie.

"Oh, I am afraid to leave the car."

"The woods will not hurt us. It is only men who harm. Come, we must. If they catch us, we are lost. Pull out here to the left, and turn off the lights. They may pa.s.s us in the darkness. Take the key with you. And hurry."

Acting upon this plan, they were soon slipping over the small stones and pebbles down a shallow gully and up among the rocks and shrubs of a little cliff.

Already the tremendous roar of the motorcycles was close upon them.

"Quick, Eveley, behind this bush.--Lie down flat. Yes, all right, Angelo.

Sh, quiet now."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Please let me go," she pleaded.]

At that instant the motorcycles whirled past--a sudden call from the familiar voice of Amos Hiltze, and with a great tearing and crashing of brakes, the cycles stopped and the men ran back to the car.

"It is her car," cried Amos Hiltze. "They have deserted it. They must be very close, we shall find them quickly. You go--"

"We can not find them," said a new authoritative voice. "The cops may be here any moment. We've got to get away to-night, or it is everlastingly too late. You have lost the girl--lost them both. Now make the best of it."

And one motorcycle was started again.

"I'll slash their tires for luck," said Amos Hiltze. "And we can send a couple of men to look for them. Then we can send back for them later on if they find them."

Eveley ground her teeth at the ripping of the tires, for the rubber is to a motorist as a baby to a loving mother. But in a moment came the sputter and roar of the motors, and the men had gone again back the road they had come.

"We'll just have to crawl into Flynn Springs on the rims, and phone for Nolan. It can not be far."

But even that was impossible, for with devilish foresight, Amos Hiltze had taken the timer from the carburetor, and the little Rolls was powerless.

"We'll walk then," said Eveley bravely, and hand in hand, the three of them set out on the rocky winding road to Flynn Springs.

"Nolan will not waste any time coming for us," said Eveley confidently.