nd an instant later the voice said:

"There aren't men enough in Kentucky to make _me_ run away like a thief;
if I am made to go it must be by force." The tones were low and
tremulous, but were sufficiently clear and held no hint of surrender.
Then, putting out both hands like a child at play in blind man's buff,
the figure groped its way forth from the cabin, moving directly toward
Miner and saying: "How can I talk with you, though, when I can't see
you? Till to-night I never dreamed a Kentuckian would be ashamed to show
his face."

Actually Miner's hand shook as he tore off his mask, for the figure
approaching him was that of a woman, possibly a girl, and she must have
been preparing for bed at the time the men arrived, for her hair was
hanging over her shoulders, and through the opening of her wrapper there
showed the white glimmer of a gown.

Even in the midst of his own shame and chagrin Ambrose inwardly
chuckled, seeing that for the first time in his life Miner had to
discuss a question with a woman without his primeval conviction that man
was ordained to be always in the right and woman in the wrong.

"Madam, there has been some mistake; surely you can see that----" he
began pompously. But the girl shook her head. "I told you I couldn't
_see_ anything."

Something of relief hid in Ambrose's grin this time, for if the Yankee
school teacher had a sense of humour even the situation in which he and
his companions found themselves was not utterly hopeless.

But an impatient voice now spoke from the crowd. "Oh, fer the love of
heaven, can't you understand we didn't know you was a woman? Reckon we'd
all 'a' come shyin' out here to drive a woman away? You pack up your
duds in the mornin' and leave comfortable, and no more said."

"I won't," came the defiant answer. Then changing her tactics, the girl
drew nearer Miner, and putting out one hand almost touched his coat
sleeve, although actually he seemed to shrivel away under it. "Do let me
stay, at least for a while," she pleaded. "My father was killed in the
war; I have to make my own living and this is my first chance. I didn't
know you would mind so much. And, please, I am not so very
Yankee--Indiana is only just across the river."

There were no tears in the voice, but a sound so suspiciously near them
that ten men, shuffling their feet, wished one of their number would
speak.

At last an answer came from a long shadow against the front wall of the
cabin. "