had been let loose on
earth.

"Come with me," cried Addie Neidic, as Mr. Pond came down with his
valise in hand. "Be quick, or there will be murder under this roof."

Pond, seemingly dazed and bewildered, obeyed, and out by a rear door
hastened the fair owner of the doomed house, with her maid, or
man-servant, and Willie Pond, while the Texan, telling them he soon
would follow, remained.

Plainly now the shouts and vile threats of the drunken marauders came to
the ears of the single listener.

"I wish I had a barrel or two of gunpowder here," he muttered. "I'd make
them sing another tune."

Nearer and nearer they came, and now the Texan extinguished every light
but one, which he shaded with his hat. Then he looked to the front door
and windows and saw that they were all barred, except a single shutter
which he left so he could open it.

A minute later, and the tramp of a hundred hurrying feet came loudly on
his ear. Then shouts:

"Clean her out. Kill her and burn her crib!"

In a minute the crowd brought up before the closed doors.

"Open your doors, woman, or we'll shatter them!" cried Wild Bill.

"Open, or down goes everything!" shouted the crowd.

"Here, Bill; here is a shutter loose!" cried one.

Wild Bill sprang toward it, and as he did so the shutter flew open; he
saw a white face surrounded by auburn hair; he heard one gasping
cry--"sister"--and he fell back in terror, crying out:

"The ghost! the ghost!"

But some one fired a shot, the light went out, and all was dark where
the light had been.

Bill recovered from his shock almost as soon as he felt it, and joined
with the shout:

"Down with the doors! Down with the doors."

The crash that followed, told that the frail obstacles had given way,
and Bill cried out:

"In and clean the crib out. Ghost or no ghost, give us light, and clean
the crib out!"

Cheer after cheer told that the house was entered, and a minute later,
torches made from splintered doors and shutters, blazed in a dozen hands
as the ruffians ran to and for in search of plunder.

"The ghost. Find the ghost, or the woman!" yelled Bill.

CHAPTER X.
A MYSTERY.

The excited and ruffianly crowd dashed to and fro, overturning the
furniture, tearing aside curtains, and looking for plunder, but unable
to find anything of value, beyond the furniture, or to see a single
living person under the roof. Not a dollar in money, not a piece of
plate rewarded their search.

"Fire