I was that astonished I hardly realized what was taking place before he had my wrists and ankles strapped, tightly, but not painfully, and had placed a gag in my mouth.

'Now, you keep quiet,' he said, and showed me a horrible-looking knife, which he put on the seat between us.

'If you move at all when we pass through towns,' he went on, 'I stick this into you very deep.' Somehow, I knew that he meant to carry out his threats to the letter.

At first I was more angry than hurt or even alarmed.

Then I began to believe that I had fallen into the clutches of a lunatic, and grew horribly afraid.