k like the
last cry of a lost soul.

"Don't, Jim!" Mary cried, shivering. "You'll frighten her to death."

"I hope so."

"Go up and speak to her--and knock on the door."

He waited again in silence, scrambled out of the car, and fumbled his
way through the shadows to the dark outlines of the cabin. He found the
porch on which the front door opened.

His light foot touched the log with sure step, and he walked softly to
the cabin wall. The door was not yet visible in the pitch darkness. His
auto lights were turned the other way and threw their concentrated rays
far down into the deep woods.

He listened intently for a moment and caught the cat-like tread of the
old woman inside.

"I say--hello, in there!" he called.

Again the sound of her quick, furtive step told him that she was on the
alert and determined to defend her castle against all comers. What if
she should slip an old rifle through a crack and blow his head off?

She might do it, too!

He must make her open the door.

"Say, what's the matter in there?" he asked persuasively.

A moment's silence, and then a gruff voice slowly answered:

"They ain't nobody at home!"

"The hell they ain't!" Jim laughed.

"No!"

"Who are you?"

She hesitated and then growled back:

"None o' your business. Who are you?"

"We're strangers up here--lost our way. It's cold--we got to stop for
the night."

"Ye can't--they's nobody home, I tell ye!" she repeated with sullen
emphasis.

Jim broke into a genial laugh.

"Ah! Come on, old girl! Open up and be sociable. We're not revenue
officers or sheriffs. If you've got any good mountain whiskey, I'll help
you drink it."

"Who are ye?" she repeated savagely.

"Ah, just a couple o' gentle, cooing turtle-doves--a bride and groom.
Loosen up, old girl; it's Christmas Eve--and we're just a couple o'
gentle cooin' doves----"

Jim kept up his persuasive eloquence until the light of the candle
flashed through the window, and he heard her slip the heavy bar from the
door.

He lost no time in pushing his way inside.

Nance threw a startled look at his enormous, shaggy fur coat--at the
shining aluminum goggles almost completely masking his face. She gave
a low, breathless scream, hurled the door-bar crashing to the floor
and stared at him like a wild, hunted animal at bay, her thin hands
trembling, the iron-gray hair tumbling over her forehead.

"Oh, my God!" she wailed, crouching back.

Jim gazed at her in a