no
place in her mind. She was under the protection of Alan Macdonald, the
infallible.

No matter what others may think of a man's infallibility, it is only a
dangerous one who considers himself endowed with that more than human
attribute. Macdonald did not share her case of mind as he stood with
his eye to the squint-hole that he had bored beside the rotting jamb.

"How did you find her? where was she?" she asked, her thoughts more on
the marvel of Nola's return than her own present danger.

"I lost Thorn's trail that first day," he returned, "and then things
began to get so hot for us up the valley that I had to drop the search
and get those people back to safety ahead of Chadron's raid. Yesterday
afternoon we caught a man trying to get through our lines and down
into the valley. He was a half-breed trapper who lives up in the
foothills, carrying a note down to Chadron. I've got that curious
piece of writing around me somewhere--you can read it when this blows
by. Anyway, it was from Thorn, demanding ten thousand dollars in gold.
He wanted it sent back by the messenger, and he prescribed some
picturesque penalties in case of failure on Chadron's part."

"And then you found her?"

"I couldn't very well ask anybody else to go after her," he admitted,
with a modest reticence that amounted almost to being ashamed. "After
I made sure that we had Chadron's raiders cooped up where they
couldn't get out, I went up and got her. Thorn wasn't there, nobody
but the Indian woman, the 'breed's wife. She was the jailer--a regular
wildcat of a woman."

That was all there was to be told, it seemed, as far as Macdonald was
concerned. He had the hole in the wall--at which he had worked as he
talked--to his liking now, and was squinting through it like a
telescope.

"Nola wasn't afraid to come with you," she said, positively.

"She didn't appear to be, Frances."

"No; she _knew_ she was safe, no matter how little she deserved any
kindness at your hands. I know what she did--I know how she--how
she--_struck_ you in the face that time!"

"Oh," said he, as if reminded of a trifle that he had forgotten.

"Did she--put her arms around your neck that way _many_ times while
you were carrying her home?"

"She did _not_! Many times! why, she didn't do it even once."

"Oh, at the gate--I saw her!"

He said nothing for a little while, only stood with head bent, as if
thinking it over.

"Well, she didn't get very far with it," he