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Next he secured the rifle that had been such a burden and had served him so well in the end. "Get in, Miss Anderson," he said, "and show me where to drive you home." She got in beside him, making a grimace as she saw Ruenke lying behind her. Kurt started and ran slowly by the damaged car. "He knocked a wheel off. I'll have to send back." "Oh, I thought it was all over when we hit!" said the girl.
"This's a good a chance as we'll get," he said, in an eager, hurried whisper. "For what?" asked Lenore, aghast. "To run off," he replied, huskily. Lenore had proceeded so cleverly to carry out her scheme that in three days Nash had begun to implore and demand that she elope with him. He had been so much of a fool. But she as yet had found out but little about him. His right name was Ruenke.
Kurt made a motion toward the back of the car. Then Anderson looked over the seats. With that he opened the door and in one powerful haul he drew Ruenke sliding out into the road. Ruenke's bruised and bloody face was uppermost, a rather gruesome sight. Anderson glared down upon him, while men from the other cars crowded around. Ruenke's eyes resembled those of a cornered rat.
Kurt experienced a relaxation that was weakening. He could hardly hold the wheel and his mood became one of exaltation. "Father suspected this Ruenke," went on Lenore. "But he wanted to find out things from him. And I I undertook to twist Mr. Germany round my finger. I made a mess of it.... He lied. I didn't make love to him.
She could not deceive him even if she would. And then for a moment she was weak, at the mercy of contending tides. "Sure I seen he was in love with you," Anderson was saying. "Seen that right off, an' I reckon I'd not thought much of him if he hadn't been.... But I wasn't sure of you till the day Dorn saved you from Ruenke an' fetched you back. Then I seen.
Lenore divined that his later words held no truth. "Mr. Ruenke, you are a detestable coward," she said, with quivering scorn. "I let you imagine Oh! I can't speak it!... You you " "God! You fooled me!" he ejaculated, his jaw falling in utter amaze. "You were contemptibly easy. You'd better jump out of this car and run. My father will shoot you."
"You deceitful cat!" he cried, haltingly, as anger overcame his astonishment. "I'll " Anderson's big bulk loomed up behind Nash. Lenore gasped as she saw her father, for his eyes were upon her and he had recognized events. "Say, Mister Ruenke, the postmaster says you get letters here under different names," said Anderson, bluntly.
I hope yours is not broken." Kurt got into the car and found, to his satisfaction, that it was not damaged so far as running-gear was concerned. After changing the ruined tire he backed down the road and turned to stop near where Ruenke lay. Opening the rear door, Kurt picked him up as if he had been a sack of wheat and threw him into the car.
Lenore told what had transpired between her and the driver. Anderson's face turned fiery red. "That ain't much to help us," declared, angrily. "But it shows him up.... So his real name's Ruenke? Fine American name, I don't think! That man's a spy an' a plotter. An' before he's another day older I'm goin' to corner him. It's a sure go I can't hold Jake in any longer."
The girl leaned against the side of the car, with a hand buried in her heaving breast. She was recovering. The gray shade left her face. Her eyes, still wide and dark and beginning to glow with softer emotions, were upon Kurt. "You you were the one to come," she murmured. "I prayed. I was terribly frightened. Ruenke was taking me to the I.W.W. camp, up in the hills." "Ruenke?" queried Kurt.
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