"Cut it out!" he said peremptorily. "I will get to the bottom of this." To Bela he said harshly: "What do you expect us to do for you, girl? You promised us a fair answer yesterday morning, and in the night you skipped with the cook."

Bela raised an innocent-seeming face.

"What you mean, skip?" she asked.

"Lit out, eloped, ran away," said Jack grimly.

"I never did!" she cried indignantly. "He carry me off."

They stared at her open-mouthed again.

"What I want wit' a cook?" she went on quickly. "I want marry a man wit' something. He is a bad man. He tak' me away. Now he say he done wit' me!" Tears threatened again.

They were only half convinced.

"How did it happen?" Jack demanded.

"In the afternoon he find my cache where I stay by the little creek,"

she said. "Talk to me lak a friend. I think all right. But in the night he come back when I sleepin' and tie my hands and my feet and my mouth, and throw me in my boat and tak' away! I hate him!"

"Then it was you we heard cry out?" exclaimed Joe.

"Sure!" she a.s.sented readily. "The handkerchief come loose. But soon he stop me."

"He did it just to spite us!" cried Joe furiously. "He didn't want her himself! I always said he had too proud a stomach for a cook. Worked against us at night like a rat! I warned you often enough!"

"Hold on!" said Big Jack, scowling. "There's more to this." He turned to Bela accusingly. "You were paddling the dugout when you came to the river yesterday. I saw you plain."

"Soon as the wind begin to blow he cut me loose," she said. "He can't mak' the boat go. He tak' my gun and point to me and mak' me paddle."

"The d.a.m.ned blackguard!" muttered Shand.

Jack was still unconvinced. "But to-day," he said, "when my oar busted you laughed. I was lookin' at you."

Bela hung her head. "He tak' me away," she murmured. "I t'ink he marry me then. I good girl. I think got marry him."

This convinced them all. They burst out in angry exclamations. It was not, however, for what they thought Bela had suffered. Each man was thinking of the wrong Sam had done him. Toward Bela their att.i.tude had subtly changed. She was now a damaged article, though still desirable. Their awe of her was gone.

"I'll grind my heel in his face for this," snarled Joe. "I'll kill him slow!"

"Come on!" cried Shand. "We're losing time. He can't have got far."

Bela scrambled out of the dugout. "I tak' you where he is," she said eagerly. "I can track him in the gra.s.s. I can't catch him myself. But you got give him to me for punish."

"We'll attend to that for you, my girl," said Jack grimly.

"No blood!" she cried. "If he is kill for cause of me I get a bad name around. A girl can't have no bad name."

They laughed with light scorn. "You're done for already," Joe said.

"n.o.body knows him," said Jack. "He'll never be missed. We'll take good care he ain't found, neither."

"The police will know," insisted Bela. "They can smell blood. Bam-by maybe you mad at each ot'er. One will tell."

This was a shrewd shot. The three scowled at each other furtively.

There was no confidence between them.

"Well--what do you want to do?" asked Jack uneasily.

"I give him to the police," stated Bela eagerly. "They comin' up the river now. Come every year this tam. Then all will be known. It is not my fault he tak' me away. I good girl."

"Maybe she wants to get him to marry her," suggested Joe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bela (Colleen Moore) overhears the brave bargaining for her.

(_Photoplay Edition--"The Huntress"_) (_A First National Picture_)]

"No marry!" cried Bela with a fine a.s.sumption of anger. "He throw me down! Speak bad to me! I hate him! I want punish!"

"Sounds fishy somehow," muttered Jack, hesitating.

"You come wit' me," she said, shrugging. "See all I do."

"Maybe the idea is to get us away from the boat so he can sneak back and swipe it," suggested Joe.

"You foolish!" said Bela, with a glance of scorn. "You can walk to Johnny Gagnon's and get your horses. Let one man stay here to watch the boats."

"Come on!" cried Shand from the top of the bank. "Catch him first and decide what we'll do to him after."

"Go on," said Bela sullenly. "I not track him wit'out you give him me for punish."

"You swear you'll hand him over to the police," demanded Jack sternly.

"I swear it!" she replied instantly, looking him in the eye and holding up her hand.

"All right. Come on. I'm satisfied," a.s.sented Jack.

"Wait!" she said. "You promise to me you not hurt him. Give me your hand."

She forced all three to shake hands on it, Joe submitting with an ill grace.

"Now come on," said Shand impatiently.

"Leave your guns," commanded Bela. "Maybe he run. You get mad and shoot. I want no blood."

Jack scowled at her with reawakened suspicions. "I keep my gun by me,"

he growled.

"He got no gun," sneered Bela scornfully. "You 'fraid catch him wit'