As the young woman struggled ahead she became increasingly afraid, close to panic. The woodswere even denser now, and the low-hanging branches clawed at her bare arms, leaving longscratches. She knew her captor's name: Casanova. He fancied himself a great lover, and in facthe could maintain an erection longer than any man she had ever known.

He had always seemed rational and in control of himself, but she knew he had to be crazy. Hecertainly could act sane on occasion, though.

Once you accepted a single premise of his, something he had said to her several times: “Manwas born to hunt ... women.”

He had given her the rules of his house. He had clearly warned her to behave. She just hadn'tlistened. She'd been willful and stupid and had made a huge, tactical mistake.

She tried not to think of what he was going to do to her out here in these bewilderingTwilight Zone type woods. It would surely give her a heart attack. She wouldn't give him thesatisfaction of seeing her break down and cry.

If only he would un gag her. Her mouth was dry, and she was thirsty beyond belief. Perhaps shecould actually talk her way out of this of whatever it was that he had planned.

She stopped walking and turned to face him. It was draw-a-line-in-the-sand time.

"You want to stop here? That's fine with me. I'm not going to let you talk, though. No lastwords, dear heart. No reprieve from the governor. You blew it big time. If we stop here, youmay not like it.

If you want to walk some more, that's fine, too. I just love these woods, don't you?"

She had to talk to him, get through to him somehow. Ask him why. Maybe appeal to hisintelligence. She tried to say his name, but only muffled sounds made it through the damp gag.

He was self-assured and even calmer than usual. He walked with a cocky swagger. “I don'tunderstand a word you're saying. Anyway, it wouldn't change a thing even if I did.” He had onone of the weird masks that he always wore. This one was actually called a death mask, he'dtold her, and it was used to reconstruct faces, usually at hospitals and morgues.