The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1917-05-08

Trask was so astonished by her i'm
prudence that he laughed.
"Why, you little fluffy pullet, I'll tie
you up and drop you in the river!'
ooh, you will?" said Gloria
She snatched the poker from the
fire. Trask laughed at it, She hit the
table with it and sparks few She
rubbed it on the wooden top of the
table and smoke arose. There was
a kissing sound. Trask shuddered.
Gloria jabbed at him with her red-hot
sword. He could feel the soaring pain
of it before it reached him. When it
arrived where he was he was not
there. Gloria was a trif1e conceited
over her success.
And now, what next? She saw the
rope in MS hand. He had brought it
to tie her with. The next idea came
She gloated a trifle.
'You thought you would tie me up,
did you? Wen, you can just tie your
self up!',
Trask could hardly believe that any
one would be cruel enough to infiict
such an insulting injury. But Gloria's
arguments were nokes with the poker.
If Trask had been more intelligent
and less confused, and had known how,
he might have tied himself up as the
cabinet tricksters do-so that he could
Slip out easily. But this was beyond
him at the time, and Gloria was Wig
liant
She made him fasten the rope
around a stanchiOn, then knot it about
one wrist, then pass it around him till
he looked like a package Of Gloria's
own tying. The last knots she attend
ed to herself. She set the poker on a
plate within easy reach, and knotted,
and knotted, and knotted. Trask
CRASHED his teeth with rage, but he
could not bulge He yelled just once,
then she seized dish towel, whirleG it
into a roll and gagged him so that he
could not even gnash his teeth.
Gloria heard footsteps along the
deck overhead. Probably Jed was
coming down. The poker was cold.
There was 10 time for relocating it.
Something must be done at once. She
put out the lamp that Nell had light
ed, she set at the foot of the stairs
wicker rocker, she laid'it on it's side,
| and fell back to await developments.
Jed came down the stairs in the
! dark. AS he left the last step he put
his foot in the wicker rocker as in a
| trap. Jed went on over with a crash
that shook the barge. He was yell
ing that he was being bitten to death
| by a wildcat, when Gloria sidled past
him, ran up the stairs and out on deck.
She closed the hatch, fastened it and
voted herself three cheers.
She looked about her now and saw
that she was in the middle of the Hud-
son river and a great distance from
either shore. The view was magni-
fcent in the cleaning, but she had had
enough of it and the hateful tug was
furrOWing the water and dragging the
barge farther and farther north.
She saw the tiller Of the barge
Hopping idly, and it occurred to her
that if she could get free from the tug
she could steer the barge to shore her
self. Somewhere below was her IA
theirs home. Stas and his father and
mother would be waiting for her. Per
haps her own father Was alarmed It
was time for her to go home. She
would take her prisoners back to her
Iatner ana denver them TO Whatever
punishment seemed right.
She had never steered a canal barge,
but she imagined that it would be
about the same as q motor boat in
| general principles. Fortunately, she
had been carried so far north that the
current would act as engine power.
She was delighted with the scheme.
She went forward and saw the big
hawser sagged in the middle and cut
the water. The tug had buckled down
to its work, churning up a noisy wake.
She could see the backs of the crew
of the tug where they sat smoking and
solemn and bored to death.
They would have had good laugh
! if they had seen Gloria trying to unite
the knots in that hawser With her lit
tie hands. She was laughing to think
how surprised they would be later
when they discovered by chance that
the barge had disappeared.
When a parcel came home from 8
shop Gloria always tried to unite it
then always went for the scissors. Sc
| now. when she saw that she could not
quite unknot the hawser, she looked
for the shears. She found an ak or
deck and attacked the big rope.
i She hit everything but the hawser
!, and when she hit that at last 1T was
! like hitting a huge rubber band. Ths