not see how the story
would hold now. Either the girl should have captured them, they being
out of ammunition, or the whole thing should have been done again,
according to the original plan. However, as she said, it was not our
affair. Our business was to teach them a lesson not to impose on
unsuspecting tourists, for although not fond of Mrs. Ostermaier, we had
been members of Mr. Ostermaier's church, and liked him, although his
sermons were shorter than Tish entirely approved of.

We withdrew again to seclusion until they had passed, and Tish gave them
ten minutes to get well ahead. Then we rode out.

Tish's face was stern as she led off. The shriek of Mrs. Ostermaier was
still, as she said in a low tone, ringing in her ears. But before we had
gone very far, Tish stopped and got off her horse. "We've got to pad the
horses' feet," she said. "How can we creep up on them when on every
stony place we sound like an artillery engagement?"

Here was a difficulty we had not anticipated. But Tish overcame it with
her customary resource, by taking the blanket from under her saddle and
cutting it into pieces with her scissors, which always accompany her. We
then cut the leather straps from our saddles at her direction, and each
of us went to work. Aggie, however, protested.

"I never expected," she said querulously, "to be sitting on the Rocky
Mountains under a horse, tying a piece of bed quilt on his feet. I
wouldn't mind," she added, "if the creature liked me. But the way he
feels toward me he's likely to haul off and murder me at any moment."

However, it was done at last, and it made a great change. We moved along
silently, and all went well except that, having neglected to draw the
cinch tight, and the horse's back being slippery without the padding, my
saddle turned unexpectedly, throwing me off into the trail. I bruised my
arm badly, but Tish only gave me a glance of scorn and went on.

Being above carelessness herself, she very justly resents it in others.

We had expected, with reason, that the so-called highwaymen, having
retreated to a certain distance, would there pause and very possibly
lunch before returning. It was, therefore, a matter of surprise to find
that they had kept on.

Moreover, they seemed to have advanced rapidly, and Tish, who had read a
book on signs of the trail, examined the hoofprints of their horses in a
soft place beside a stream, and reported that they had been going at a
lope.

"Now,