overcoat, for the cape, ripped
from the collar seam, was left in her hands. Another soldier's overcoat
was later found at the rear fence, but no boots, shoes or tracks
thereof, yet both these men, judging from the sound, had been in
stocking feet, or possibly rubbers, or perhaps--but that last suspicion
she kept to herself, for Mrs. Hay, too, was now among the arrivals in
the house, full of sympathy and genuine distress. The alarm, then, had
gone beyond the guard-house, and the creators thereof beyond the ken of
the guard, for not a sentry had seen or heard anything suspicious until
after the shots; then Number 8, Flint's latest addition, declared that
from his post at Hay's corral he had distinctly heard the swift
hoofbeats of a brace of ponies darting up the level bench to the
westward. Number 5 had turned up safely, and declared that at the moment
the scream was heard he was round by the flagstaff, listening to the
night chorus of a pack of yelping coyotes, afar out to the northwest,
and then he thought he heard scrambling and running down at the foot of
the bluff just as the shots were fired. Investigation on his part was
what took him out of sight for the moment, and later investigation
showed that one marauder, at least, had gone that way, for a capeless
greatcoat was found close down by the shore, where some fugitive had
tossed it in his flight. This overcoat bore, half erased from the soiled
lining, the name of Culligan, Troop "K;" but Culligan had served out
his time and taken his discharge a year before. The other overcoat was
even older, an infantry coat, with shorter cape, bearing a company
number "47," but no name. Both garments savored strongly of the stable.

Then, before quiet was restored, certain search was made about the
quarters. It was found the intruders had obtained admission through the
basement door at the back, which was never locked, for the sentry on
Number 5 had orders to call Bitzer at 5:30 A. M., to start the fires,
milk the cow, etc.,--Hogan, Ray's factotum, being roused about the same
time. The marauders had gone up the narrow stairway into the kitchen,
first lashing one end of a leather halter-strap about the knob of
Bitzer's door and the other to the base of the big refrigerator,--a
needless precaution, as it took sustained and determined effort, as many
a sentry on Number 5 could testify, to rouse Bitzer from even a nap.

It was no trick for the prowlers to softly raise the trap door