"What are you going to do?" cried Peggy, through the muffling medium of the coat.
"You'll soon find out," was the rejoinder. "Jukes, bring her inside the shed and keep her quiet."
Jukes! The name struck a familiar chord in Peggy's memory. She knew now why the face and form of the man hanging about Fanning's "Phantom" hangar at the aviation field had seemed so familiar to her. It _was_ Jukes Dade, the man her father had peremptorily discharged. Peggy could not repress a shudder as she thought of the desperate character of the man.
Suddenly, as her captors half dragged, half carried her into the workshop, her body grew limp, and she fell in an insensible heap forward. She would have struck the ground had not a pair of hands caught her.
"So much the better," growled out his companion; "she won't give us any trouble now. We can do what we've got to do and get away. Got the files?"
"Here they are," responded Jukes; "just let me lay her down here while I hand 'em to you."
He deposited Peggy's limp form on a long box on which some sacks had been strewn. The next instant the sharp rasping of a file could be heard in the silent workshop.
"I guess this Golden Butterfly will have its wings clipped for some time to come," chuckled Jukes' companion, whom Peggy, of course, had not yet seen.
"I guess that's right," laughed the other; "just wait a jiffy while I lay down this gun of mine and I'll give you a hand."
He stepped over and put down a wicked-looking pistol on the rough bench on which Peggy lay. Then he turned and began to help his companion. The two worked by the light of a dark lantern which they had brought with them on their rascally expedition to ruin the Golden Butterfly.
But suddenly a slight noise behind him made Jukes turn his head. As he did so he gave a startled yell. Peggy, her eyes bright and wild-looking, was standing up behind them. In her hand was the pistol which Jukes had laid down beside her when she had seemed to faint a few moments before. But Peggy's faint had been a simulated one. Realizing that harm was meant to the Golden Butterfly, she had imitated unconsciousness as a means to possible escape and giving the alarm.
"Don't move, either of you," said Peggy, in a firm voice. "I'm only a girl, but I can use a pistol."