hack. Either
you are in it or out of it, and in one way or the other one is bound to
be in evidence," said Miss Robbins, smiling frankly.

"What did your visitor look like?" inquired Cora.

"He was tall and dark and very stooped," replied Mrs. Robbins.
"Besides this, I noticed he wore boots with his trousers outside, as a
farmer or clammer wears them."

"Oh!" said Cora simply. But she did not add that this description
tallied somewhat with that of the man she had seen about Clover
Cottage. She particularly saw the boots, but many clammers wear them
that way.

"I fancy the girls will be timid to-night," Cora remarked, as they
started back to the cottage.

"Yes, this has been what you might call a portentous evening," agreed
Walter, "and I do declare I think Miss Robbins is--well--nice, to put
it mildly."

"Wallie," said Jack. "I will have an awful time with you, I can see
that. But you are young, boy, very young, and she is already a doctor,
so maybe there is hope--she may be able to cure you."

CHAPTER VI

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT

"Hush!"

"I heard it!"

"Call Nettie!"

"I would have to go out in the hall--the noise was somewhere near the
second stairs."

"But I am so frightened--I shall die!"

"No, you won't. Please be quiet! I have the little revolver!"

Cora crept out of bed and left Belle trembling there. She only
advanced a few steps when the sounds in the hall again startled her.
The stairs certainly creaked. There was no cat, no dog. Some one was
walking on those steps.

Cora realized that discretion was the better part of valor. It would
be foolhardy to run out in the hall, even with the cocked revolver in
her hand. If she could only touch the button of the electric hall
light! She stepped out cautiously. Something seemed very near, yet,
at that moment, there was no sound, just that feeling of some one near.

She reached her arm out of the door, touched the button, and, in an
instant, had flooded the hall with light.

As she did so she saw a man turn and run down the three steps near the
window, part way up the stairs.

The window was open! Cora was too frightened to move for a moment,
then she raised her revolver, and the next instant the sound of a shot
rang through the house.

The man dropped out of the window.

Cora ran to it, looked down, saw the figure on the ground beneath, and
fired again, but not at the man.

With a cry the fellow jumped up, and as he hu