, and there was a time when I should
not have stepped aside to let death pass. But I apologize, Mr. Lorimer,
for inflicting such talk on you. Hope we shall be friends if we come out
of this safely. The check?--yes, we'll put it away. It might have saved
trouble to sign it, but you see it was her mother's money, and I only hold
it in trust for my daughter. Neither are we as rich as some suppose us to
be."

His grim face relaxed, and his voice sounded different when he spoke of
Grace, while a few moments passed before he added:

"It cannot be far from dawn, and there's not a soul in Carrington except
you and myself. Grace took all my people with her to help at Lone Hollow.
So, unless you are inclined to stalk them, which I should hardly suggest,
as they might be too clever for you, we must await our friends' arrival
and make the best of it."

I had no inclination whatever to try the stalking. To take a kneeling shot
at an unsuspecting man seemed in any circumstances almost a crime; so we
sat each with a rifle laid across his knees, and for the first time in two
years I tasted excellent tobacco. But the vigil grew trying. The house
seemed filled with whispers and mysterious noises. My throat grew dry, and
the Colonel laughed when once I moved sharply as a rat scurried behind the
wainscot. Neither of us felt inclined to talk, and our eyes were fixed
steadfastly upon the door, until at last the lamp seemed to rise and fall
with each respiration. Then the Colonel approached the window as though
listening, after glancing once more at his watch.

"It must be daybreak, and I hear something," he said. "There is probably
one of them watching, but we must chance it," and he moved softly toward
the door. When we stood outside the cold of the morning went through me
like a knife. Still a rapid beat of horse hoofs rose out of the big
coulee, and it was evident that the outlaws had heard them, for we saw two
men busy with the horses at the stable door, while two more disappeared
behind the bank of sods that walled off the vegetable garden. What their
purpose was, unless they meant to check any accession to our strength
while their comrades escaped with the coffer, was not apparent. It was
blowing strongly now, and the air was thick with falling snow, but I made
out two riders who resembled Harry and Ormond coming toward us at a
gallop, with another horseman some distance behind. Then a hoarse shout
reached us--"Stop right there, and