For perhaps five minutes I lay where I had been so unceremoniously dropped, weakened by loss of blood, and dazed by the rapidity of events.

I found it hard to adjust my faculties to this new situation.

I knew what had occurred, but into whose hands I had fallen, and what was the purpose of this outrage, was beyond my comprehension.

One thing, however, was sufficiently clear--these men were playing for big stakes, and would hesitate at nothing to accomplish their purpose.

They had already killed without remorse, and that I still survived was itself a mere accident.