Somewhere deep in the forest.....

"I'm not sure we can hold her," whimpered Bill Ozzball. A sigh of frustration came again unwelcome.

"Well. Look. Maybe we should chain her up more. The hand cuffs we got from the sergeant were tempered steel. Wrap her arms in more chains. And her forearms, too."

"Bill, you're paranoid," said Roger Shang. "You are a paranoid fanatical man. Look. We tied her up and we chained her up. We did both. Houdini couldn't get out of that. Play cards. Stop worrying. Sheesh, you think we was amateurs."

"Gotta relax now, Billie boy," said another. "We tied her up pretty good this time."

"That's what we said last time," Bill parried.

"She got lucky. Sometimes she gets lucky," quelled Le Grande. Le Grande had taken them all in on this big game hunt. He was the one who knew most about the legendary strength of Kate Novak. It was he who advised that they reinforce her cage with extra-strength steel wenches and chains around the outside.

"Le Grande. You paid us to subdue her. And we did. We nearly got ourselves killed doing so. You said she was a woman. A strong woman. And we are talking unusually strong, aren't we?"

"She nearly tore my arm off!" whimpered Eddie Gretzel, wiggling his arm sling. It wasn't pretty.

"So what's the matter, boys? Afraid she'll get out? I reinforced that shed myself. Those chains are so thick, they'd hold the Titantic in a gale force wind. Stop worrying. Even Novak's got a limit. I've seen it."

"Do you know that she kicked her way out of a car?" Bill broke in. "She kicked the door off its hinges. Yes, she kicked the door of its hinges! I was there! I saw her do it!"

"That old mustang?" countered Le Grande. "I could have kicked my way out of that hunk of junk and so could any of you. You gentlemen are not using your heads. I will admit she is unusually strong. For a woman. The rest, it's a phobia you all suffer from. Just relax. In six hours, we're all rich men."

"Did you tie her up good or didn't you, Bill? That's what we want to know."

"I tied her up good. I'm just saying, we should tie her up more, so she doesn't get out."

"She's not going to get out!" snapped Le Grande. "She's not going to get out, so just play cards, keep watching the shed. If something strange goes on, go over there and check it out."

"We believe you, Mr. Le Grande."

Bill Ozzball, threw a nervous glance over his shoulder, turned back, and nodded sheepishly.

"Good." And Jean Jacque pushed his chips to the center of the table.

"I'm in for twenty."

Inside, struggling near the light of a wood-burning stove, was the gorgeous Amazon foil, Kate Novak, every inch as powerful as she was gorgeous. Back and forth she shook her tremendous upper body, tugging at a chain that wrapped her arms and anchored her in a standing position to a steel wench in the roof. Her mouth was packed in gauze and cleave-gagged and her eyes were covered by a black "sleeper's blind fold" tied in back of her head.

She stood in the center of the room in one and a half feet of freshly-poured concrete, her ankles wrapped in a chain that went through the floor of the shed to a wench fortified by steel plates. Between the ceiling chain and the floor chain, she did not have enough room to bent her tremendous Amazonian legs; all she could do was wiggle.

As for her hands, they had been brought behind her so that they touched her elbows, and lashed together with two layers of rope and one layer of strong steel chain. Another layer of rope pinned her arms above the elbow to her torso, limiting her movement, minimizing her leverage. This had been very well thought out. It had to be Le Grande, she thought. He's been observing me for weeks in every kind of confinement. I'll be dealing him a blow to the ego if I can undo this!" Kate thrashed again and heard the chain clang in its ring ont he ceiling. It made a second attempt to free her arms from behind her. seem less futile. Matched with the thick chain around her arms, anchoring her to the ceiling, the ropes made impossible to pull her arms away from her sides. And until they were, she knew she had no chance of breaking free.

One had to appreciate the way she struggled. Her flannel was opened to the third button, and as she thrashed, her magnificent bosom thrashed with her. Both of her breasts pressed into each other and created a deep and pronounced cleavage line that could have been a source of strength from the way it cried out unyieldingly. Kate spent six hours a day training her already magnificent body to the brink of physical perfection. Every muscle was taut and powerful, and she was aware of what kind of affect this had on her self-esteem. It was like having a full purse, a self-achieved personal wealth no one could take away from her. Even in a situation as hopeless as this one, Kate felt herself assured that escape was just a matter of time.

But Le Grande was nobody's fool. Not only had he chained her legs to the floor, he had cemented them in place. This broke off Kate's wiggling at the top of the ankle stem. She might break a bone if she wrenched too hard, and Le Grande knew. The physics were impossible, even for an Amazon. Kate Novak tried once again to pull her legs from the floor. but the floorboards creaked and the chain above her pulled down with a grinding groan, and she knew she had gained no ground. She tossed her arms back and forth in frustration, her bosom heaving and falling in its own personal protest.Then she came to a halt and caught her breath. She has been struggling like this for twenty minutes. It was time to think.

She had to take in her surroundings. Her arms were useless and her legs were anchored to the floor. Above her was the chain that kept her upright. What if that were the weak link? Whatever the chain was anchored to would be as sturdy as the ceiling. And the ceiling would be a lot less sturdy than the floor. That was it! A place to focus her strength! Kate now employed the crushing power of her abdominal muscles. She could not see what progress she was making, but from the slack in the chain around her arms, and the groaning of the metal shed, she gathered something was happening...