nobody
killed. There was some shootin', sure! A girl done it! Some college
girl in a car. She see the guy comin' to make a get-away in her car,
see? And she let go at him, and picked him off the first call, got him
through the knee; an' by that time the fire comp'ny got there, and
cinched 'em both. She's some girl, she is!"

Julia Cloud felt her head whirling, and hurried back to the house to
sit down. She was trembling from head to foot. Was it Leslie who had
shot the burglar? Leslie, her little pink-and-silver butterfly, who
seemed so much like a baby yet in many ways? Oh, what a horrible
danger she had escaped! If she had escaped. Perhaps the boy did not
know. Oh, if they would but come! It seemed hours since they had left.
The midnight train was just pulling into the station! How exasperating
that the telephone did not respond! Something must be out of order
with it. Hark! Was that the car? It surely was!

CHAPTER XIX

How welcome a sound was the churn of the engine as it came flying up
the road and turned into the driveway!

Julia Cloud was at the door, waiting to receive them, straining her
eyes into the darkness to be sure they were both there.

Leslie sprang out, and dashed into her arms.

"O Cloudy! You waited up, didn't you? We thought you must be asleep
and didn't hear the telephone. We tried to call you up and explain.
You see, Jane was there alone, and of course she didn't much enjoy
staying after what had happened; so we waited till the Johnsons got
back from the city. They had been to the theatre, and they just came
on that midnight train. If I lived in a lonely place like that, I
wouldn't leave three babies with a young girl all alone in the house.
It seems the servants were all away, or left, or something. I guess
they were pretty scared when they got back. I wanted to bring the
children up here to stay all night with us, and let them _be_ scared
when they got home; but she wouldn't, of course; so we stayed with
her."

Leslie tossed aside her velvet cloak as she talked.

"It was awfully exciting, Cloudy. I'm glad I went. There's no telling
what might have happened to Allison if somebody hadn't been there. You
see he shut down the motor as we came up to the house. We'd been going
like a streak of lightning all the way, and we tried to sneak up so
they wouldn't hear us and get away; but there was one man outside on
the watch, and he gave the word; and just as Allison got out of the
car