ining the bolts of the heavy shutters. Alberdina,
with her little iron bound trunk beside her, sat grumbling in a corner.

"Is it for thees I haf gome?" she murmured. "I to New Yorg return
to-morrow. They will keel me already yet."

"You are perfectly safe, Alberdina," said Miss Campbell, "and you are
not to go back to New York to-morrow. You are to stay with us and see
this thing through. I shall telegraph Mr. Campbell in the morning and
have the law on these people. I am sick and tired of their savagery and
injustice. The cruel wretches! I----"

A long shrill whistle interrupted her outburst. It penetrated the stout
walls of their fortress so unexpectedly that it brought them all to
their feet with low exclamations.

"There they are," whispered Mary.

Alberdina groaned, "Mein lieber Gott," and sank upon a couch with the
expression of a condemned man about to be executed.

It was some moments after the whistle before the enemy made its next
advance. That also was unexpected and terrifying,--loud knocks on the
wooden shutters of the large entrance.

Nobody moved or spoke. Again the knocks came and a voice called:

"We want that gal and her father. You ain't got no right to shelter
criminals. Open in the name of the law. I reckon a sheriff will make you
listen to reason."

"Break the door down, Lupo," said another voice. "The law's in its
right to git what it wants. They ain't nobody that kin refuse the law
without payin' for it."

Although they were so confident of the law, the girls felt sure the
mention of a sheriff was a blind, and that the mountaineers were not
going to do anything so incriminating as to break in the doors. Then
there followed a period of consultation outside. Footsteps could be
heard along the galleries; the stout shutters on all the openings were
shaken and pounded upon; but Sunrise Camp was indeed as strong as a
fortress when it was closed. Storms had beaten against it in vain, and
unless the mob outside resorted to hatchets and saws, it would not be
easy to break in.

At last the voice of Lupo spoke from the front gallery.

"Ladies, I'm only askin' justice. You got two dangerous people in this
here house. The law wants 'em. We don't mean no harm to you an' we'll
leave peaceable if you'll hand over the prisoners. I'm goin' to give you
five minutes to decide in an' if you don't open the door, we're goin' to
break it open with this here axe."

"You'll do nothing of the sort, Lupo,"