and he beat heavily upon the door. Gardner
himself opened it, and he started back in astonishment at the wild
figure covered with mud, a heavy pistol clutched in the right hand.

"In Heaven's name, who are you?" he cried.

"Don't you know me, Mr. Gardner? I'm Harry Kenton, come back from
Charleston! Bill Skelly and fifty of his men have ridden down from the
mountains and are besieging us in our house, intending to rob and kill!
The constable is there and so are Judge Kendrick, Senator Culver,
and a few others, but we need help and I've come for it!"

He spoke in such a rapid, tense manner that every word carried
conviction.

"Excuse me for not knowing you, Harry," Gardner said, "but you're
calling at a rather unusual time in a rather unusual manner, and you
have the most thorough mask of mud I ever saw on anybody. Wait a minute
and I'll be with you."

He returned in half the time, and the two of them soon had the town up
and stirring. Pendleton was largely Southern in sympathy, and even
those who held other views did not wholly relish an attack upon one of
its prominent men by a band of unclassified mountaineers. Lights sprang
up all over the town. Men poured from the houses and there was no house
then that did not contain at least one rifle.

In a half hour sixty or seventy men, well armed with rifles and pistols,
were on their way to Colonel Kenton's house. Only a few drops of rain
were falling now, and the thin edge of the moon appeared between clouds.
There was a little light. The relieving party advanced swiftly and
without noise. They were all accustomed to outdoor life and the use of
weapons, and they needed few commands. Gardner came nearer than anyone
else to being the leader, although Harry kept by his side.

They went on Harry's own trail, passing through the garden and hurrying
toward the house. Three or four dim figures fled before them, running
between the rows of vines. The Pendleton men fired at them, and then
raised a great shout, as they rushed for the lawn. The mountaineers
took to instant flight, making for the woods, where they had left their
horses.

Colonel Kenton and his friends came from the house, shaking hands
joyfully with their deliverers. Lanterns were produced, and they
searched the lawn. Three men lay stiff and cold behind the dwarf pines.
Harry shuddered. He was seeing for the first time the terrible fruits
of civil war. It was not merely the pitched battles of